Homage to Hentai
by Mimi Gelato
Summary: Every one makes fun of the whole hentai tentacle porn thing, but it is sometimes seen as the artist giving an homage to the ancient pornographic art of times long gone by, so I figured why not do that and make make it a survival horror type story with the characters from my favorite actually ONLY (if I'm being completely honest) romance story, Junjo Romantica?
1. Chapter 1

Prologue

Since the tsunami destroyed the nuclear power plant and nuclear waste was poured into the ocean, no one thought the damage to ocean life was so extensive; until an octopus was thrown by the waves into a large concentration of nuclear waste. The waves caught it once more and returned it to the ocean, but by then the damage was done and it began mutating into a horrible monster.

It grew in size until it was bigger than most Japanese buildings and it developed countless more tentacles. The new monster had only one goal: to capture the humans, who it blamed for its grotesque appearance, and punish them by raping them to death with its tentacles.

No one knew how to deal with the threat without risking millions of innocent lives, but they discovered that the creature had one very odd weakness, for a giant octopus, it couldn't open doors or break windows with its tentacles.

Realizing this, the people resolved to stay inside their houses, but this was also a flawed system as they quickly discovered they would eventually run out of food and have to leave their houses sooner or later, and going outside was almost certain death.


	2. Chapter 2

After the appearance of the creature and the discovery of its weakness, Hiroki decided to ask Usagi if it was all right for him and his lover, Nowaki, to stay over as their apartment was closer to the creature, and not as high up as Usagi's apartment. Usagi reluctantly agreed, but he was not pleased when Hiroki arrived with not just Nowaki, but also his colleague, Miyagi, and Miyagi's young lover, Shinobu.

"Hiroki, I didn't say you could bring these two as well." He confronted

"Come on, Usagi-san, let them stay. We have plenty of room for them. You're not really going to force them to go back out there, are you?" Usagi's lover, Misaki tried to reason with him.

"Fine, they can stay," Usagi hesitantly decided.

"We brought our own futons and food too. We didn't want to impose on you any more than we already are." Nowaki assured.

"Thank you." Misaki welcomed the four men inside. He felt odd having two of his university teachers living with him, but he couldn't turn them away after what they braved to get there.

Hiroki felt responsible for creating the mess they were currently in. He had told Miyagi about his plans to stay with his childhood friend Usami Akihiko; and Miyagi, seeing a way to protect his lover from the monster, offered to drive Hiroki and Nowaki to Usagi's apartment on the condition that he and Shinobu would also get to stay there.

Hiroki agreed to ask Usagi, but couldn't bring himself to ask his friend for another favor in fear of rejection, and if Hiroki had reported Usagi's refusal to Miyagi, then he and Nowaki would have been walking to Usagi's apartment.

The creature's tentacles had yet to reach the streets in their area, but when they had left that morning they could see it approaching fast. The creature, at the time, was actually looking for ways to capture the humans who thought they would be safe in their cars, and was throwing the cars against the pavement.

"I'm sorry Akihiko. I didn't mean to trick you, but I didn't have a choice." Hiroki felt it necessary to apologize.

"Never mind it, Hiroki." Usagi dismissed.

Just then, Misaki's cell phone began to go off and he answered it, "Hello? Oh, Brother! How are you and Sister doing? And Mahiro? That's good! No, I'm fine. Usagi-san is doing well too. Do you want to talk to him? Okay, I'll hand the phone over." Misaki said before giving the phone to Usagi, "It's my brother." Usagi took the phone from him and began to talk to Takahiro.

"Your brother? How's Takahiro-kun doing?" Hiroki asked curiously.

"He's fine. He and his family were actually on a business trip in China when the creature attacked so they're all right. They won't be able to come back to Japan until the creature is gone though."

"Still it's a good thing that they're all right." Nowaki smiled at him

Usagi ended the call and handed the cell phone back to Misaki. "So, what was that about?" Misaki asked.

"I just promised Takahiro I'd protect you."

"You didn't need to do that, I can take care of myself you know."

"He's worried about you. I just wanted to assure him that nothing would happen to Misaki, I won't allow it."

"Stupid Usagi-san, why do you always have to say the weirdest things?" he muttered as he tried to hide his blush, "Well, who's hungry? I could go for some lunch!" Misaki laughed nervously, attempting to clear the awkward air.

Usagi, Hiroki, Miyagi, and Shinobu sat down in the living room while Nowaki volunteered to help Misaki cook. "Should I go help them?" Shinobu wondered out loud.

"No, I'd rather have you within reach." Miyagi grinned as he wrapped his arm around his lover, _"Anything to stop him from having anything to do with the food."_

Shinobu responded by wrapping his arms around the older man while blushing darkly. "I've met you before, Usami-sensei, but this here is my lover Takatsuki Shinobu." Miyagi introduced.

"Pleased to meet you." Usagi mumbled as he lit up a cigarette.

"Oh, I'm Takahashi Misaki!" Misaki called out from the kitchen.

"Nice to meet you!" Shinobu called back, finally releasing Miyagi.

The four continued to sit in awkward silence until Nowaki and Misaki called them for lunch. Misaki was about to sit down at the far end of the table until Usagi pulled him over to sit next to him. "Usagi-san—"

"Sit with me, Misaki."

"Fine." He mumbled as he took a seat next to his lover.

The day was passed in relative peacefulness, but Misaki couldn't help but notice Usagi's quiet demeanor. Usagi had always been a territorial person; the only one he had ever allowed in his space was Misaki himself. Usagi never even let Takahiro stay over even though Usagi had been in love with him for ten years. Misaki was always the only exception, _"Unless his cousins bribe him with books or bears, but I'm the only one who didn't have to give Usagi-san anything to be allowed to stay. Unless you count my body… and my virtue…"_ he muttered in his head, thinking about his perverted landlord and his passion for writing boys love novels; most of which featured Misaki himself.

When night fell, Misaki was just finishing changing the sheets on Usagi's bed when Usagi suddenly entered the room. "Were you talking to Aikawa-san?" Misaki asked.

"Yeah, she's fine; she's staying with Ijuuin-sensei." Usagi informed him

Aikawa-san's own apartment was not in a safe location, and while Misaki couldn't ask Usagi to allow more people over, even if she was Usagi's close friend and editor, Misaki decided to ask Ijuuin to let her stay over due to his concern for her well-being. Ijuuin was all too happy to allow Misaki's dear friend to stay with him until the octopus problem blew over.

"I'm glad she made it there okay, I was really worried about her." Misaki was relieved upon learning that she was safe.

The electricity and phone towers were destroyed by the monster in Sumi's area, but he had spoken to Toudou, who was doing fine in his apartment. "I finished my bath, so you can head in now." Usagi told him before sitting down on the bed.

Misaki expected Usagi to try something and was surprised when the older man just sat there rubbing his damp hair with the towel. "Sure, okay." Misaki nodded before leaving the room.

When he exited the bathroom, he saw their four guests setting up their futons in the living room, _"Looks like everyone is pretty tired."_ Misaki thought. He decided to go back to Usagi's room to check on him, and was astonished to see that he was already asleep. _"I guess that's not so unusual."_ He stated in his mind, but what was unusual was the fact that Usagi hadn't tried touching him at all. _"He had the opportunity to… maybe I'm just over thinking this. He's probably just a little stressed right now. I'm sure he'll be back to his perverted ways in the morning."_ He concluded before leaving the room and walking to his own.

He used his room whenever he could, most nights Usagi forced Misaki to sleep in his room and during those nights, Misaki usually passed out from strenuous activity and never had the chance to go back to his room.

He still felt uneasy about Usagi, and lying on his small bed made him feel oddly lonely. Still, he couldn't bring himself to go back to Usagi's room just because of an odd feeling. He scolded himself for being so worried before turning over and willing himself to sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning, the phone continued to ring all day. Misaki would attempt to answer it, but Usagi would take one look at the caller I.D. and unplug the phone before Misaki could get to it. Misaki plugged the phone back in every time Usagi unplugged it, that is until Usagi gave him a warning glare which caused Misaki to stop.

Once the caller realized the house phone was unavailable, Usagi's cell phone began to ring. He kept ignoring the calls until his frustration got the better of him and he simply turned it off. Upon doing that, Misaki's cell phone rang. Misaki took it out of his pocket to answer it, but Usagi snatched it from his hand and answered it for him, "Never call this phone again." He cautioned darkly to whoever was on the other end.

He was about to hang up when the other person on the phone seemed to have suddenly captured his interest and he walked away with Misaki's phone and entered his study upstairs. The call seemed to last forever until Usagi returned downstairs and handed Misaki's phone back to him, "I blocked the number, he won't bother you anymore." He muttered.

"Stupid, damn Usagi-san! Why did you do that? Don't block people from my phone without my permission! Who was it anyway?" Misaki demanded angrily.

"My father. He, Haruhiko, Kaoruko, and Mizuki are staying over." Usagi's bangs hid his eyes from Misaki, but he could still sense Usagi's irritation.

"Th-that's not so bad, right Usagi-san?" Misaki laughed nervously.

Usagi didn't respond he just walked back up to his study without so much as a glance over his shoulder to look back at his worried lover.

" _I still feel like there's something wrong with Usagi-san."_ Misaki thought. While Misaki had been living with Usagi for four years, there was still much that the older man didn't tell his young lover about, and Misaki himself never pried because he didn't want to upset him. However, at that moment, there was a man within reach who knew Usagi since he was ten; a man who would surely know the reason why Usagi was acting so abnormal.

Misaki walked into the T.V. room and saw Hiroki and Miyagi reading books while Shinobu watched the news. "Um… Kamijo-sensei…"

"What is it, Takahashi-kun?" Hiroki demanded, clearly annoyed, as he kept his eyes on the book.

"Usagi—uh I mean, Akihiko-san's family is coming over today."

"Oh, is that so?" He asked uninterested, "You don't have to call him by his real name you can use the nickname if you want; I've heard you use it before, as you may recall, so I know who you're referring to." He added, thinking about his own special nickname that his lover had given him; the name that no one except Nowaki was allowed to use.

"Ah, th-thank you." Misaki was still nervous about talking so close to "Kamijo the Demon", especially when he had a very thick, hardcover book in hand. "But you see, you know how Usagi-san doesn't like his family, and since yesterday he hasn't been acting like himself."

"Hmm? Maybe he's maturing." Hiroki scoffed. Usagi becoming withdrawn at the thought of being around his relatives didn't strike him as out of the ordinary or particularly interesting.

"You're not worried?"

"Of course not. He's probably just moping because of all the people that are here, not to mention the impending arrival of his family. Trust me, he's fine."

"Mm." Misaki nodded his head in agreement.

Hiroki looked up at Misaki and saw the pure concern on his face, and Hiroki had to admit that it was melting his icy heart, not that it was truly so cold to begin with. "Fine." He groaned in defeat before standing up from the couch and putting the book down, "If you're that worried about it, I'll have a word with him."

"Thank you so much, Kamijo-sensei!"

Hiroki seemingly ignored him and walked up the stairs to Usagi's study. He knocked on the door and was given permission to enter. He closed the door behind him and Usagi turned to look at him. "Hey, Akihiko, are you okay?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Your inquiry doesn't answer my question, don't try to dodge this."

"Why would I be?"

"Then why aren't you answering my question?" Hiroki sighed in defeat, "Look, I'm really sorry about bringing so many people over here, but don't take it out on the kid. He's worried about you, you know."

Usagi's interest seemed to be caught once Hiroki mentioned Misaki to him. He put his cigarette out before responding, "I'm fine, Hiroki."

"You don't seem to be acting fine to the kid. I've always believed that no matter how you feel personally, you should always put on a brave face for the one you love just to make sure they don't worry about you. I know that with all the people who are here now, and the others who are coming, you're probably feeling exasperated, and you have a right to be, but be a man and try to bare it for the kid's sake; if you don't want him to worry about you."

"I really am fine, but if Misaki is worried then I'll try not to show my irritation too much."

"Good, now why don't you assure him as much as you have me? He's the one who's concerned, not me." In truth, Hiroki was a little worried; that was another reason why he had decided to talk to him. Hiroki however didn't see anything wrong with Usagi though, _"Maybe the kid just worries too much. In my opinion, he's the same old Akihiko."_

Usagi lit another cigarette before he turned around and started typing again, "I'll come down when I'm done." He replied.

"I doubt any publishing companies will be open for a while." Hiroki pointed out dryly.

"True, but this will get Aikawa off my back for a while so I can have some time to spend with Misaki."

"You really love that kid, don't you?"

"My love for him is unquestionable."

"Yes, I guess it is." Hiroki actually smiled before he left. Usually it was common for people to feel jealousy upon seeing an old love with someone they truly cared for, but Hiroki had never felt jealousy for Usagi after falling in love with Nowaki. Actually, he had always been concerned that Usagi would dedicate his entire life to his own one sided romance. Seeing him with Misaki all those times, Hiroki noticed that look that his best friend gave his young lover; it was the same look he would sometimes cast at Nowaki when he wasn't looking. True love is rare, but once you find it, you never feel jealous when an old flame finds their love, you just feel happy for them.

When he returned to the T.V. room, he saw Misaki trying to distract himself by reading a "Da Man" manga, but he kept fidgeting uncomfortably on the couch. Upon hearing Hiroki's entrance, he looked up at him anxiously, "S-so, how did it go?"

"He's fine; really you worry too much." Hiroki assured as Misaki stood and Hiroki moved to sit back down.

"Are you sure?"

"Of course. I've known Akihiko since he was ten. I know his personality better than anyone."

"R-right." Misaki felt a jab at Hiroki's statement, _"Maybe you've known him for longer, but no one knows his personality better than me!"_ he thought angrily. Everyone always told him how well they knew Usagi, and seemed to patronize him, thinking he was just a naïve kid. It really pissed him off. "Thanks again, Kamijo-sensei!" he said instead. He had to be grateful; he was the one who couldn't muster the courage to ask Usagi himself, in fear that he was the cause.

"No need to thank me, Takahashi-kun. Don't be afraid to speak to him yourself. If something's bothering you, I think he'd want you to tell him yourself, don't _you_ think?"

"Right." Misaki agreed with some dryness. He didn't like Hiroki pointing out things to him that he already knew.

Hiroki didn't continue to speak though, he just kept his nose in the book he was reading before, and Misaki decided to leave the room.

Usagi's family arrived after everyone had just finished lunch, everyone except Usagi that was. Usagi had come down and ate a shockingly small amount of food before returning to the study. _"The hell there's nothing wrong with him."_ Misaki thought bitterly, _"He's barely spoken to me all day; he won't even look at me. Does he blame me for all these people coming over?"_ Misaki had wondered as he watched his lover walk away.

When the doorbell rang, Misaki answered it and let Usagi's family in. "Where's my son?" Fuyuhiko asked instantly.

"In his study, he seems to be working really hard even now." Misaki responded with a happy grin plastered on his face, it was a painful mask to hide his discomfort with the invasion of the Usami clan.

"I see." Fuyuhiko shrugged before taking a seat on the couch.

"Misaki!" Kaoruko demanded his attention, "I brought ingredients for baking, help me now."

"How can you think of baking at a time like this?" Mizuki snorted.

"It calms me!" she snapped back.

"For it being so calming and all, you sure sound bitchy while you're doing it." He sneered.

"Shut it, Nosy!"

"It's not being nosy when I can hear you shouting at Takahashi-kun from the other room."

"I never shouted at Misaki! He actually knows what he's doing!"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"You couldn't bake anything even if all you had to do was pour the batter into a pan!"

"How would you know? I can take excellent care of myself, and cooking is a part of that too!"

"Microwave dinners don't count as cooking!"

"Knock it off you two." Haruhiko broke his cold silence.

The two remained quiet after that and Haruhiko sat down on the couch at the opposite end of his father. Mizuki decided to roam around while Kaoruko helped Misaki put away the food they brought and the baking ingredients. "As the only girl, you can have my room, Kaoruko-san." Misaki told her.

"Thank you, Misaki. Naturally, you'll have to sleep with me." She declared as she tried to hide her blush.

"Huh?!"

"Well it's your bed, isn't it?"

"Ah, that's fine, you can use it."

"Well still it's your bedroom, you should sleep there, shouldn't you?"

"Uh, I probably should, but I'm sure Usagi-san won't mind me sleeping in his room."

"No, I'm sure he won't." Mizuki interrupted them, causing Kaoruko to give him a death glare while Misaki blushed darkly. Mizuki ignored Kaoruko and continued, "I'm sure he won't mind you sleeping in his bed right next to him. I often saw you come out of his room in the morning and not your own room. I wonder why." He smirked.

Misaki noted the nonchalant look on Fuyuhiko's face while Haruhiko had his head lowered so that his bangs would cover his eyes. "Mizuki!" Kaoruko slammed her hands down on the counter, "That's more than enough out of you!"

"What? I'm just stating a fact, besides it's not like it's a secret. Everyone here knows what kind of relationship they have." He shrugged.

"It was unnecessary and uncalled for! No one asked you where Misaki slept while you were here or who he slept with!" Misaki knew that she was trying to defend him, but she was actually making his embarrassment worse.

The rest of the afternoon was spent with Kaoruko and Mizuki at each other's throats while Misaki helped her bake, and Fuyuhiko decided to engage Miyagi and Hiroki in a conversation, and Haruhiko remained in an unbreakable silence. Shinobu, hearing the yelling going on in the other room, remained in the T.V. room trying to find something interesting to watch. Usagi stayed upstairs, and Nowaki was nowhere to be seen.

Misaki took a break from baking to go over to Fuyuhiko, "How's Sebastian—um, I mean, Tanaka-san doing?" Misaki asked anxiously.

"He's fine; he's at the summer house with my wife."

" _Usagi-san's mother?"_ Misaki wondered, "Ah, and are Alexander and Tama okay too?"

"Yes, they're all at the summer house." He assured him.

"Ah, good!"

"My son certainly has been up there for a while, hasn't he?"

"Y-yeah, as I said he's working pretty hard, can you believe it? Even now he's so dedicated."

"Maybe I should go up and say hello, but I have a feeling he may not like that. Takahashi-kun, would you be so kind as to ask him to come down."

"Oh, but I don't want to bother him while he's busy."

"I'm sure if it's you then it's no bother."

"Ah, you would think that…" Misaki laughed nervously, but the old man was not persuaded. "I'm sure a quick break wouldn't hurt." He reluctantly admitted.

"Thank you Takahashi-kun, you're such a good kid."

Misaki couldn't help but note the way he had ever so slightly emphasized the word "kid" in his sentence. Misaki ignored it though and hurried upstairs. He tapped on the door to the study, but didn't receive a response. He opened the door and saw Usagi asleep at his desk. He closed the door behind him and shook Usagi awake. "Usagi-san!" Misaki called, slightly annoyed with the older man for napping and for polluting the air with his cigarette smoke.

Usagi opened his tired eyes and sat up, "What?"

"Your family is here, go see them.

"No."

"Usagi-san, don't be like that!"

"I don't want to see them."

"Usagi-san, show some maturity and go see your family. They braved the monster just to be here, the least you can do is go see them instead of hiding up here sleeping. What's with that anyway? Didn't you sleep all night last night?"

Usagi just stared at Misaki and Misaki started to think how odd it was that even though Usagi had gone to bed early, and slept in so late he still had to wake Usagi up before he missed out on breakfast, of which he barely ate any, not to mention his nearly untouched lunch, and now he was even napping in a nearly smoke filled room. Why was he so tired? Why was he suddenly eating so little?

Before Misaki could voice his questions, Usagi stood, "I'm going to get some coffee." He mumbled before leaving the room.

Misaki stayed behind with his own thoughts for a moment longer, _"There's definitely something wrong with Usagi-san."_ He noted before exiting the room. He saw Usagi making coffee while his father talked to him. Usagi didn't respond to his father, he just looked at him with a blank expression.

Eventually, Fuyuhiko gave up and sat back down on the couch while Usagi returned upstairs with his coffee and Misaki watched Usagi pass by him once again without so much as even a glance in Misaki's direction.

"Ah, Takahashi-kun!" Nowaki suddenly materialized beside him

"Kusama-san, what is it?"

"No need to be so formal," he grinned, it was always odd for him to hear people call him by his last name, as pretty much everyone called him by his first name, "But actually, I wanted you to help me take inventory. I've been going through our combined medical supplies, but I'll need help with the food."

"Inventory?"

"Yes, we'll need to start rationing the food at once. God only knows when the creature will die or if there are any plans to kill it."

"Right! Good idea!" Misaki agreed

"We'll start with the fridge first, we'll want to eat everything in there before it goes bad, but keep it for as long as possible."

"Okay."

"Then we'll go through the cupboards, and the vegetable box. Some of the vegetables will go bad before the others do so it's important to make note of that."

When night fell, the newcomers started picking out there places to sleep while Kaoruko took Misaki's room as he offered. Misaki reluctantly entered Usagi's room and got into bed fully expecting Usagi to pounce on him at any time, but Usagi didn't.

"Usagi-san?" Misaki called out, but the older man was already asleep. Usagi was always quick to fall asleep, but he never could resist touching Misaki when he was only inches away from him.

"Usagi-san." Misaki shook him awake.

"What?" Usagi asked as he sat up.

"Is there something wrong? Are you mad at me? If I've done something to anger you, you can tell me."

"No, nothing's wrong."

"Then why aren't you trying to touch me?" Misaki blurted out before he could stop himself.

Misaki blushed darkly and expected Usagi to smirk and act cocky, but instead Usagi just patted Misaki's head, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to worry you. You didn't do anything to upset me."

"Then why are you acting like this?" Misaki questioned exasperated.

"Misaki…"

"What? What is it?" Misaki's frustration was nearing its peak.

"…I'm sorry, but can we talk about this in the morning, I'm really tired."

Misaki noted how each word that came out of Usagi's mouth sounded like they were causing him physical pain. Even he didn't want to say the words he had forced himself to speak. "How can you be tired? You slept in this morning and you napped in the afternoon!"

"Misaki…" instead of saying anything else though, Usagi simply turned away from him and laid back down.

Misaki sat there in shock at Usagi's actions. After sitting in the cold silence, that was only broken by Usagi's soft breathing, for what seemed like hours, Misaki finally laid back down and fell into an uneasy sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

The next morning Misaki had to wake Usagi up once more; that time though, Usagi looked like he was going to pass out at any time. He once again ate very little food, and spent the rest of the day in his study. "Um, Kamijo-sensei," Misaki decided to ask for his advice once more, "have you noticed anything odd about Usagi-san?"

"Yes, I was noticing that this morning." Hiroki commented, _"Idiot, Akihiko! I bet he never even assured the kid yesterday like I told him to!"_ he growled in his head before saying, "If he were anyone else I would have believed he was sick, but Akihiko has never been sick since I met him. He's not the type to have a weak immune system. I think it's probably just an accumulation of stress, you know how he is. He likes to keep his emotions bottled up, and this is undoubtedly the aftermath of doing so. He'll get over it."

Misaki thought for a moment, _"Usagi-san being sick would explain a lot, but I've never seen him sick, and neither has Kamijo-sensei, and he's known Usagi since they were ten. Maybe it's not an illness and he's just stressing about his current situation, but I still can't rule out the possibility of an illness. After all, stress has never stopped Usagi-san from touching me. If anything it has always encouraged him. Well as having Kamijo-sensei talk to him didn't help at all, I'll ask Usagi-san myself if he's feeling unwell."_ Misaki concluded.

He entered the study and instantly noticed the overwhelming smell of cigarettes. "Usagi-san!" Misaki groaned, "I thought I told you to cut back on cigarettes! You're going to kill yourself!"

"I thought it wouldn't be so bad if I had the window open."

"Well it is! It reeks of cigarettes in here! And close the damn window! Do you want to be raped to death?"

Usagi closed the window before taking one more drag of the last of his cigarette and he began to cough violently as he crushed the little fire out in his ash tray on the desk. "Usagi-san?" Misaki was concerned by the older man's coughing fit.

"I'm fine." Usagi gasped as he caught his breath.

"You don't sound fine. And you've been acting really strange lately."

"I'm fine, Misaki. You should be more concerned about yourself."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"No matter what happens, Misaki I want you to only think about yourself."

"What are you talking about?" Usagi was starting to scare him with his cryptic words.

"In survival situations like this, it's easy to forget about the well-being of others and focus on self-preservation. I want you to do that Misaki."

"Why are you talking like that?"

"Because if something happens to me, I won't be able to protect you."

"Nothing is going to happen to you or me, so please stop talking like that!"

"Misaki…" Usagi stood as if to walk over to him, but upon standing his legs gave out from under him and he fell over and passed out.

"Usagi-san!" Misaki cried out before rushing over to his lover's side. Misaki tried shaking him awake, but he was unresponsive. Misaki felt Usagi's forehead and noticed how hot he felt to him. _"He was sick."_ Misaki realized.

He hurried downstairs and retrieved Nowaki before running back up to the study. Nowaki examined Usagi before asking, "Has he been vomiting lately?"

"I've noticed him going inside the bathroom often, but I never asked."

"It seems like the flu. Chain smoking only exacerbated it. He'll be lucky if it doesn't become bronchitis." Nowaki looked up at Misaki and seemed to notice the boy's concern, "He'll be fine Takahashi-kun. Usami-san seems to be known for his resilience, according to Hiro-san, now will be no different." He gave Misaki a reassuring smile and Misaki smiled sadly back at him, still not really believing the pediatrician in training.

"Why don't you go get some medicine for him?" Nowaki suggested, figuring that giving Misaki something to do may help put his mind at ease.

Misaki left the room and walked down the hall, _"Did I make him sick? Was the stress too much for him and it made him sick? No, surely it couldn't have been that, right? I mean people get sick for a lot of different reasons, like being out in public and being exposed to germs… but then again, it's been a while since Usagi-san has been outside. Maybe he fell asleep on a cold night without covering up or while still wet, after all it is the fall season and the nights have definitely been getting colder. But Usagi-san has always been covered and he seemed dry the other night. I can only think that the stress of having eight extra people here is the reason why Usagi-san's immune system gave out. So it's my fault. I mean, I didn't tell him to accept the Usagi clan here, but he probably did that because he knew I would have told him to let them stay. I can't imagine him agreeing to do so of his own free will."_ Misaki sighed before turning back down the hall with the medicine in hand and was surprised to see Usagi awake.

"Usagi-san!" Misaki gasped as he hurried over to him, "How are you feeling? Are you okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Be—because you passed out, you idiot!" Misaki snapped.

"I've done that before and you've never seemed so concerned."

"You've never been sick before!" Misaki hissed.

"Hm? Sick? I'm not sick."

"Don't lie to me! I felt you, you have a fever!"

"It's fairly high too." Nowaki cut in, "You should take better care of yourself Usami-san; your fever is already 38.9 degrees Celsius, don't let it rise."

Usagi remained silent and simply stood. "Usagi—," Misaki was prepared to catch him if he fell again, but that time Usagi managed to stay standing.

"I'm fine; it was just a dizzy spell." He tried to assure his lover.

"Bullshit." Misaki was still clearly pissed, "Why did you let yourself get so sick? If you were feeling ill you should have told me! Do you have any idea how worried I was? How worried I still am? If it was the other way around and you were in my position, wouldn't you be pissed? Why is it okay for you to hide things from me while you always get to know everything?"

"Misaki…" Usagi prevented his rant from going further. Misaki stood there for a moment, thinking about what he had just blurted out, "… You're right." Usagi finally broke the silence.

"Huh?" Misaki was surprised.

"I'm sorry, I didn't consider your feelings, but I want you to understand where I'm coming from. Do you remember what I told you before I passed out? I meant it. We're fine now, but things will almost certainly get worse. I know you, you never think about yourself, but I need you to start doing that now. I knew if I told you I was feeling ill then you would have been concerned and you would have put my needs first. I don't care about myself though, when it comes to you that's all that matters. So long as you're okay, I'll be fine no matter what, but you have to be—"

"You can't expect me to do that, Usagi-san. I can't." Misaki cut him off.

"You have to Misaki. I don't know what I'd do if anything happened to you. So please, be selfish for once."

Misaki stayed silent. He didn't know what to say. He couldn't promise Usagi that he would be selfish, but he wanted to reassure the ailing man. Nowaki thankfully broke the uneasy stillness, "Usami-san, we should get you to bed. You need to rest."

Usagi stared at Misaki who maintained his silence and lowered his head, making his bangs cover his eyes. Usagi dropped his head as well before allowing Nowaki to lead him out.

" _Usagi-san, I'm sorry. I couldn't tell you the words you wanted to hear so desperately. But somehow I'll find a way to reassure you like you always have for me."_ Misaki promised in his head as he watched them go while he stayed behind in the study.


	5. Chapter 5

Word spread that Usagi was sick, but Misaki noted the lack of concern from the Usami clan. Hiroki felt guilty though. Nowaki noticed his lover's concern and pulled him aside, "What's wrong, Hiro-san?"

"Well, I am a little concerned about Akihiko; I've never seen him sick before."

"Everyone gets sick from time to time, Hiro-san. Usami-san will be fine."

"Yeah, no, I know that, it just surprised me that's all. Come to think of it, for all the years we've been dating, I've never truly seen you sick either."

"Ah, well, my immune system is strong because of all the children I grew up around, and I don't smoke, unlike Usami-san, so my immune system is undoubtedly stronger than his too. You may never see me sick, Hiro-san."

" _Thank you. You have no idea how much that reassures me. I'd hate to be in the kid's shoes right now. I don't know what I'd do if Nowaki got sick. I don't even want to think about it."_ He thought, "Yeah, well there's also the fact that I gave the Takahashi kid some bad advice."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I think he had a feeling Akihiko was sick, but I told him it was stress, and the way I carried on about how impossible it was for Akihiko to get sick, I think he may believe his condition to be worse than it actually is. But I mean, when a person who's not prone to illness suddenly gets sick, it's easy to imagine them being sicker than they really are. I remember when I thought you were sick that one time; I thought it was something horrible… so I can only imagine how the Takahashi kid must be feeling. He's still so young and all…"

"Hiro-san, I know you well enough to know you didn't mean any harm, but do you really think you would possibly know Usami-san better than his own lover?"

"Uh, no, I guess not." Hiroki admitted, _"After all, no one knows_ me _better than Nowaki. The same is undoubtedly true for Akihiko. He's the one who never let anyone else but the kid in, so it must mean he's opened himself up to the boy."_

"I'm sure Takahashi-kun knew to take your advice with a grain of salt, but if you're so concerned about it, you could always apologize and try to give him some encouragement. I'm sure that would give him some much needed support."

"Yeah you're right, after all I am a man, and therefore I can admit when I'm wrong and deliver an appropriate apology to convey my remorse." Hiroki bristled at the thought of admitting he was wrong, but as much as he hated it, all the years he spent with Nowaki had softened him. It was a change that Hiroki had noticed and was relieved by it. After all his silent wish had been that his lover would chip away his pride bit by bit and that was exactly what Nowaki's gentle nature had done.

" _I wonder if I've changed him at all. He's always been a kind, hardworking man, driven by his goals and dreams, and that still hasn't changed. Have I had any effect on him at all? Or maybe my lover is already practically perfect as far as personality goes?"_ Hiroki wondered as he left his lover and walked up to Misaki who was in the kitchen.

"Takahashi-kun." Hiroki announced his presence and made Misaki jump.

"K-Kamijo-sensei!"

"Before you say anything, I just wanted to apologize to you."

"Huh?"

"I dismissed your concern for Akihiko, and that wasn't right of me. You're his lover and I'm sure you would have noticed something was wrong before I did. So, I'm sorry Takahashi-kun."

"N-no, that's—"

"That being said, I also wanted to let you know that even though Akihiko being sick is very rare, I'm sure it's not as bad as you think. He'll be fine, he always bounces right back, doesn't he?"

"Ah, yes." Misaki commented as he thought about all the times Usagi had to pull several all-nighters in a row only to immediately collapse just about anywhere upon finishing, and after only a little sleep (and a lot of "Misaki recharges") he was always back to his old self rather swiftly. Misaki realized that despite the scariness of the situation, it was no different from Usagi collapsing after a deadline. _"He'll be sick for a while, but he'll recover quickly, so it's okay."_

Misaki was actually hoping Usagi would recover very soon, but he would never admit that one of the reasons that he was hoping for Usagi's quick recovery was a selfish and lustful one. Usagi had been very busy for the past two months, and during that time Usagi hadn't touched him at all. Most men, like Usagi, wouldn't have a problem releasing on their own, but Misaki's secret shame was that he couldn't release himself.

When he was growing up with his brother, he felt too uncomfortable to do something like that in his brother's apartment, knowing how awkward it would be if Takahiro had walked in on him, and after he started living with Usagi he was too afraid that Usagi would walk in on him and either pick up where Misaki had left off or demand that Misaki continue while he watched him.

Because of the anxiety his paranoia caused, he could never bring himself to do so much as stick his hand down his pants. For that reason, he needed Usagi to touch him. He needed it so badly that he started to think about swallowing his pride and begging the sickly man to touch him and then trying to trick him later on that it had been a fever dream.

Misaki thought back to the first time Usagi had touched him. Before Usagi had first laid hands on him, Misaki had never felt sexual frustration, but slowly, as Usagi started to touch him more and more, Misaki started to notice that going so long without feeling Usagi's touch was progressively starting to make him feel "restless". _"Hurry up and get better, stupid Usagi-san!"_ he hissed before quickly taking it back, _"No, no. I'm not a teenager anymore; I can handle a little abstinence. Usagi-san is the one who can't!"_ Misaki nodded to himself. _"I've gone eighteen years without sexual release; I can go for another week or two. This is nothing."_

Thinking about the first time Usagi had jerked him off, Misaki had a flash back to when Usagi had forced himself on him after he had found the boys love novel Usagi had wrote, which featured Usagi and Takahiro. Misaki, in a rage, had confronted the older man who dragged him to his bed and stroked him off. _"Thinking back on it, I did have an opportunity to escape. I could have pushed him off when he let go of my wrists, but I didn't. I've pushed him off while he was in the middle of doing that quite a few times. Why didn't I then? Was I too scared, or was it because, even though it was forced, I thought it felt so good at the time? I suppose if I hadn't been so much of a virgin, I probably would have been able to fight back, instead of letting him continue until I came... thinking back on it, I really don't hate that he did that to me."_

Recalling his first sexual release caused a physical reaction that made him move up against the counter to prevent anyone from seeing his shameful inability to control himself. _"It'll go away! It'll go away!"_ he repeated in his head, hoping that no one would come into the kitchen.

His problem was gone within moments and he left the kitchen with the tea he made and passed it out to the Usami clan. As he did so he couldn't help but voice a question that had been pricking the back of his mind, "Um… you don't seem too concerned about—"

"My son?" Fuyuhiko interrupted.

"Yeah."

"He'd get sick every once in a while as a child. I'm not too concerned, but even if I was I know my presence would probably make him feel worse." Fuyuhiko admitted.

Misaki couldn't help but think that Fuyuhiko was right. Even when they were living under the same roof, Usagi barely acknowledged his father's presence despite the old man's attempts to strike up a conversation with his youngest son.

Interestingly enough, while Fuyuhiko tried to converse with his younger son, Misaki couldn't help but notice that Fuyuhiko was allowing Haruhiko to remain silent. _"I wonder if I should talk to him. I've barely heard him say a word the entire time he's been here."_ Misaki thought.

He was slightly reluctant to converse with the elder Usami brother due to Haruhiko's unrequited love for him. However; Haruhiko, despite having technically kidnapped him once four years ago and even forcing a kiss on him at one time, was kind at heart. Misaki knew he was truly kind after Haruhiko had told him that while he hadn't given up on him, he really only wanted Misaki to be happy. Misaki felt as if that kindness was enough to receive a kindness in turn.

"Haruhiko-san." Misaki started as he sat down near him, but still a considerable distance away.

Haruhiko looked at Misaki but remained blank and silent, forcing Misaki to continue, "You haven't been very talkative since you've been here."

"No. I'm dealing with a personal loss right now."

"Huh? Who died?"

"Ryuichiro."

"What? Isaka-san died?"

"Yes. He was caught by the creature. His secretary, Asahina Kaoru, tried to save him and was crushed to death in the process. I only know this because I witnessed it. All of it. At least they died together though."

"Huh?" Misaki didn't understand what Haruhiko meant by that.

Haruhiko knew what kind of relationship the two men had, but didn't bother to explain it to Misaki, "When you've lived with someone for so many years that they become a part of you, how can you continue on without them? I'm relieved because they died together; one didn't have commit suicide or die from their grief."

"I'm so sorry, Haruhiko-san. I can't imagine the pain of losing a childhood friend."

"If you're lucky, you will live to feel that pain." Haruhiko replied grimly, "But it was the first time in four years that I cried."

"What happened four years ago?" Misaki asked.

Haruhiko remained silent and Misaki remembered that four years ago he had admitted to Haruhiko that he was in love with Usagi before turning him down once more. That was also the last time that Haruhiko had actually made a move on Misaki as well. _"Is that because he really does just want me to be happy even if he's not?"_ Misaki wondered, _"I think I may have judged Haruhiko-san too harshly. Maybe he's not as bad as I thought; though he did lock me up in a closet… well maybe coming on too strong is a common Usagi family trait."_ Misaki thought recalling Usagi's "habit" of coming on too strong; the only difference was that Misaki secretly liked when Usagi did that, whereas when it was Haruhiko it scared Misaki and he desperately tried getting back to Usagi.

" _Usagi-san is special."_ Misaki whispered in his mind.

Misaki wondered what he would do if Usagi died, but quickly shook his head as the thought entered his mind, _"I don't want to think about it."_ He swallowed hard, trying to clear up the lump that had formed in his throat.

Misaki stood and decided to check on his lover. Usagi was sleeping, and he looked so peaceful, but Misaki cringed at the harsh sound of his breathing. Misaki sat down on the bed next to him and watched him sleep. Misaki sometimes watched Usagi sleep and he liked the times he was able to see him like that.

Misaki sighed sadly, _"Usagi-san, I'm sorry. If I was the one who was sick, I know you would comfort me and smother me with affection, but I'm just not ready for that yet. I wish I could be a more confident lover towards you."_ Misaki fought the blush that threatened his face upon thinking such thoughts, _"But I know what I can do; what I've done before."_

Misaki summoned his courage and slowly reached out a slightly shaky hand and started to stroke Usagi's silky ash blond hair. He felt a little awkward but also noted how nice it felt. He could feel Usagi's heat through his hair and he realized how much he missed feeling his lover's warmth against him. _"This is nice, right Usagi-san?"_ Misaki pondered, _"Is there anything else I can do? I've stroked his hair a few times in the past, what else have I done… ah, yes, I've given him a couple of these before."_ Misaki realized as he ignored the increasing beat of his heart and timidly leaned forward and kissed Usagi on the forehead. _"I think my heart is about to explode from nervousness, but I think that's all the things I've done to him before though."_ Misaki exhaled deeply trying to calm himself, but he felt like he was disappointing Usagi with his, in his mind at least, half assed attempts at comforting his ailing lover.

" _I'm sorry Usagi-san. I know this hardly helps at comforting you. I can't even bring myself to do more than barely repeat the same things I've done to you before even though you're asleep. But I'll try harder next time. Maybe I just need your encouragement. I guess I'm still too shy to try anything without your gentle coaxing... or is 'teasing' the more accurate description?"_

Misaki continued to stroke Usagi's hair and watch him sleep for a while before thinking, _"Maybe I can do a small gesture I've never done before, but somehow seems to mean so much."_ Misaki hesitantly took his hand away from Usagi's head and reached slightly downwards and shakily grasped the hand that was sticking out from the blanket. With Usagi's high fever, his hand felt even colder than usual to Misaki, _"Usagi-san has held my hand many times before, but I never initiated the hand holding until now."_

The whole situation was scaring Misaki. Even if he knew Usagi would be quick to recover he was anxious and terrified, and for once Usagi, in his incapacitated state, couldn't reassure him.

What Misaki wasn't aware of, was the fact that Usagi had been awake the moment he had sat down next to him and Usagi was only pretending to be asleep in the hopes Misaki would let his guard down and freely show him affection.

It was hard for the older man to hold himself back from pouncing on his unsuspecting lover, especially after the forehead kiss he had received, but Misaki actually holding his hand was Usagi's breaking point. He couldn't torture himself any longer and he swiftly wrapped his arms around his lover and pulled him to his chest.

"Damn it, Usagi-san! Were you faking this whole time?" Misaki hissed.

"You were just so cute, I couldn't resist."

"Like you ever try to!" Misaki scoffed.

Usagi simply gave Misaki a squeeze with his arms and Misaki calmed down, "You know, you should let me go Usagi-san. I'm sure I'm just distracting you from sleeping."

"Not at all, I sleep much better when I'm cuddling Misaki than I do when cuddling Suzuki-san." Usagi assured him.

Misaki's face broke out in a blush, but he remained silent and almost immediately noticed Usagi's slightly softer breathing. "Usagi-san?" Upon getting no response, Misaki realized the older man had fallen asleep. Misaki unconsciously snuggled closer to him and peacefully drank in his scent before it lulled him to sleep.


	6. Chapter 6

While Misaki and Nowaki worked on nursing Usagi back to health, Hiroki felt it was his responsibility as Usagi's friend to take on the duty of keeping the Usami family entertained. Miyagi and Shinobu however, quickly realized they had nothing to do, and Shinobu was growing exasperated from boredom.

"Miyagi, was coming here really such a good idea?"

"Why not?"

"Because staying inside waiting for the tentacles to come for us is making me feel restless, why don't we just leave before we're all raped to death?"

"It's not possible, the traffic would stop us instantly, and I don't know about you, but I myself have no training in survival situations. What would we do for shelter and food? What would we use to defend ourselves if someone grew desperate enough to carjack us? I know you're starting to feel cabin fever coming on, but we have to keep our heads in these situations; we have enough going on without having one of us go mad."

"I know you're right. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if we were more useful. The Takahashi kid can cook, our host is a famous writer who can type when he's bored, that Kusama guy is a pediatrician in training who is currently helping to heal our host, and even that Kamijo guy is good at keeping the Usami family engaged in conversation, but what are we going to do? Are we just dead weight?"

"Well Shinobu, aside from reading there's not much else I'm particularly skilled at, and unfortunately for you, you don't have any hobbies outside of me. Looks like we were setting ourselves up for this. I don't regret anything though."

"Huh? Why not?"

"Because while we may stick out like sore thumbs, my only concern was, and still is, your safety, and as long as we're here we're safe; that's all I care about."

Shinobu hugged Miyagi tightly and Miyagi stroked his young lover's hair, "I know it sucks, but let's try to make the most of this situation."

"Okay." Shinobu agreed.

Miyagi pulled Shinobu away and wanted to change the subject, "Have you heard from your parents?"

"Yeah, they're fine. My dad is still in Germany with my mom, and my sister is okay too so far."

"That's good." Miyagi noted how Shinobu tensed upon talking about his sister, "Are any of your friends in Australia worried about you?"

"Yeah, but I like to joke about it with them to keep them from worrying, like saying how stereotypical it is for a giant monster to be attacking Japan."

"They must be relieved that you're all right."

"Yeah, they pretend that my light mood is assuring, but I can tell they're still concerned."

"You have good friends, it's not surprising."

Shinobu fell silent and decided to return to the topic that was bothering him, "Do you think there's anything we can do to be helpful?"

"Well… how do you feel about doing household chores around here?"

"But the Takahashi kid keeps this place really clean; do you think that's necessary?"

"I'm sure Takahashi-kun will appreciate our help while he looks after Usami-sensei, and especially now that there are so many people to pick up after. We'll clean the house during our free time; we'll wash the dishes after everyone finishes eating, and even do the laundry."

"What about taking out the garbage?"

" _I'll_ take care of that, Shinobu-chin."

"What? Why?"

"It's too dangerous for you to go outside."

"But I'm faster than you." Shinobu pointed out.

"I'm your elder and I said no."

"Miyagi! I'm not a child! I'm a legal adult now and I can make decisions too! It would be stupid for you to go outside and be raped to death because you weren't fast enough to get away!"

"This isn't up for debate; you're staying where you'll be safe."

"I'm not going to let you go out there alone!"

"Alone? But it would be fine if I had someone with me?"

"Uh, well… mm. Yeah, that should be fine."

"Very well, I'll have Kamijo go with me to be the look out."

"No! I don't want you going with him!"

"You said it would be fine so long as I wasn't alone, and I told you from the start that I wasn't going to let you go outside."

"Dammit, Miyagi! I—"

Miyagi silenced him with a quick kiss. Once Shinobu had calmed down, Miyagi released him from the kiss and explained, "Shinobu, you're still a young college student, you've got your whole life ahead of you. I'm on the verge of turning forty, and I've lived my life. I loved someone so dearly one time that when I lost her I never thought I'd recover from it, but I did because I realized I love you more than I loved her. But I can't experience that pain twice, so please don't make me. I don't want to lose you."

Shinobu hugged his lover firmly once more, "But I don't want to lose you either."

"I know. I know you don't, and I know it's cruel of me to ask this of you, but please don't be stubborn Shinobu; I want you to live even if I'm not alive. That's all I ask for."

Shinobu remained silent as he thought about Miyagi's first love; his homeroom teacher who died from a terminal illness, and how after her death Miyagi had spent so many years alone and lost in his love for her.

" _If Miyagi died, I know that's what would happen to me, but I don't think I'm strong enough to last for so many years being separated from him. I know I'm not strong enough to handle that, unlike him. I'm so weak and pitiful, that's why I need Miyagi because he's strong. I can't promise him I'll live on, because if I told him I would then I'd be lying to him. But still, I do want to assure him."_

Shinobu freed his lover from his grasp so he could look up at him and say, "I won't let you die, and you won't let me die."

"All right." Miyagi relented knowing that that was the most he was going to get out of Shinobu, "But Kamijo is still going to be my look out."

Two weeks had gone by and Misaki spent most of his time upstairs with Usagi, trying to make him well again. Usagi spent all of his time in his room and would sneakily type up more of one of his BL novels until he heard Misaki come up to check on him and he would pretend to be asleep. Misaki always came up to frequently check on him and try to get him to eat, without doing any of the pervy things Usagi suggested he do to make him feel like eating, before having him take another pill to deal with his symptoms. However, Usagi's fever continued to fluctuate and refused to break.

"It's still not breaking." Misaki muttered after checking it for the fourth time that day.

"I know what would break it."

"Really? What is it?"

"A Misaki recharge." Usagi answered before grabbing the all too slow twenty-two year old and pulling him down on the bed and climbing on top of him.

"Damn it, Usagi-san! We can't have sex while you're sick!"

"Hm? I don't recall that in any of the flu pamphlets I've read."

"That's because not everyone is a pervert like you!"

"I'm sure a recharge couldn't hurt; besides aren't you pent up? It's been a while since I've touched you after all." He sneered.

"You promise we won't have sex?"

"I promise; now do you think you'll be able to last long enough for me to get off as well?" he teased, still holding Misaki in place with one hand while the other slid down to lightly caress the bulge in Misaki's pants.

Misaki still had misgivings, even though he really wanted Usagi to continue, he _needed_ him to continue, "Usagi-san! Get off of me and stop doing that!" he hissed in protest.

"I will once we get off." Usagi assured him before he unbuttoned and unzipped Misaki's pants to release his already semi hard member.

Usagi took hold of his lover and started to slowly, as if teasingly, move his hand up and down his shaft, applying light pressure to all of the boy's most sensitive spots that only Usagi knew about. It didn't take long for Misaki to become fully erect and once he was, Usagi freed his own erection, which had become full just by hearing the lustful moans that Misaki was trying so hard to muffle. Usagi then nestled his member against Misaki's and once the two circumcised penises were firmly together, Usagi started to stroke the both of them off. _"I may not be able to be inside of him, but I sure as hell am going to touch him."_ Usagi thought to himself.

After only a little while of this, Misaki realized he was reaching his climax, "Usa-Usagi-san, stop! I'm going to come!"

Usagi chuckled before saying, "Go ahead then."

"N-no. You'll just… tease me… like you always do."

"No I won't." he smirked; it didn't matter, he knew Misaki wasn't going to last much longer anyway.

Usagi covered Misaki's mouth with his own and kissed him firmly before Misaki climaxed hard. "Damn, that was quick, and you had a lot saved up. You really don't do this yourself do you?"

"Of course not! That's too dirty!" Misaki spat.

"You're so innocent it's adorable."

"Shut up you damn pervert!" he snapped before sliding out from under Usagi, "Aw, geez, look at this mess. Stay put, I'm going to go grab something to clean this up with."

Usagi seized Misaki's wrist and pulled him back over to his side, "I could clean it up." Usagi volunteered as he lifted Misaki's shirt and licked a spot of cum on his lover's abdomen, "I love the way Misaki tastes."

"That's disgusting!" Misaki hissed as he struggled out of Usagi's grip, "Now stop that and stay here." He ordered before leaving the room.

He cleaned himself off in the bathroom and then returned to clean Usagi's hand and a few other areas he had dirtied because of the man. "There, now you've had your fun so go to sleep." He growled once he had finished cleaning.

"I will, if Misaki will cuddle with me."

"Hell no."

"Then I guess I'll just have to stay awake." He shrugged before taking out his laptop and opening it up.

"Damn shitty Usagi-san!" Misaki muttered before giving a resigned sigh and getting into the bed, "I'm in the bed, but you can cuddle with Suzuki-san." Misaki decided as he quickly placed the bear between them.

"Hm? That's no fun."

"You're sick, you should be miserable." Misaki muttered.

"I'd get better sooner if I cuddled with Misaki. I'd only get sicker if I cuddled with Suzuki-san."

"Don't say that like it's a threat!"

"Then let me cuddle you."

Misaki gave a low growl before moving the bear over and sliding closer to Usagi who wrapped his arms tightly around Misaki and quickly closed the gap between them and then buried his face in Misaki's hair.

Usagi fell asleep instantly and Misaki struggled to break free without waking up the older man, but swiftly found it impossible as Usagi seemed to have an iron grip on him even in his sleep. After a few moments, Misaki decided to give up and fell asleep himself.


	7. Chapter 7

In the morning, oddly enough, Usagi's fever had broken. _"How the hell?"_ Misaki questioned in disbelief, _"After two weeks of being so sick, I let him jerk me off and cuddle me, and he's fine now?"_ Misaki just couldn't believe it.

Usagi noted Misaki's shock and simply pointed out, "I told you I would get better after a Misaki recharge."

Misaki was about to say something, but wisely decided to say something else instead, "Well, the only thing that matters is that you're fine now. What do you want for breakfast?"

"Misa—"

"Not me!" Misaki hissed.

"Hm…" Usagi seemed disappointed at not being able to have Misaki for breakfast, "then I'll eat anything, just remember the eggs."

"Oh, okay, well how do you want— no, never mind. I'll make whatever and you'll eat it." He decided, knowing that Usagi was obviously still horny and anything that came out of his mouth was bound to be pervy.

While Misaki was in the kitchen cooking, he began to finely chop up a green bell pepper to put in Usagi's eggs to punish him for his bad behavior. _"He'll never notice. Enjoy your green pepper eggs, Usagi-san!"_ he snickered as he thought of his unwitting lover.

While they ate breakfast, some were enjoying the kouign amann that Kaoruko had made with Misaki's assistance. Hiroki in particular was quite impressed as he had never tasted foreign pastries before, and honestly didn't think Misaki could excel at anything given his literature assignments, "You made these?" he asked Misaki.

"Yes, but it was mostly Kaoruko-san who made them."

"You should try working at a bakery; you seem to do well enough."

"Ah, no. I mean I like cooking and baking, but I do it for fun, I couldn't imagine doing it for work, unlike Kaoruko-san. I want to edit manga, I already have a job offer at Marukawa, so I'll be working there after I graduate."

"Hm. 'To each their own' it seems." Hiroki shrugged as he continued to eat while thinking how ironic it was that they boy wanted to edit when he could barely comprehend Japanese.

Just as Misaki thought, Usagi never noticed the green peppers in his eggs, but after he finished eating, Misaki announced what he had done, "Why do you hate green peppers so much? You eat them when I hide them in your food and you think they taste good, but you always pick them out whenever you see them."

"Well since you tricked me into eating them, in retaliation I won't tell you."

"Aw! Come on!" Misaki groaned.

"Fine, I'll tell you if you kiss me, and it has to be on the lips I'll accept a kiss anywhere else too, but if you want an answer the kiss has to be on the lips."

"Never mind." Misaki growled, "Oh, but Usagi-san, did you hear about Isaka-san?"

"Yes, Aikawa told me last week when she called me to see why I hadn't emailed her another manuscript."

"It's odd, I mean I always had mixed feelings for him, but now that he's dead it's sad to think I won't hear him call me 'Shorty' anymore; not that I liked that nickname to begin with though. And I didn't know Asahina-san well, but he seemed nice."

"Yes, I know what you mean. I find myself thinking about how he won't be dragging me to any more annoying parties that I didn't approve of…" Usagi let his voice trail off as if he was trying to recall why exactly he would miss Isaka before settling with, "… yes, he will be missed."

"Usagi-san, have more respect for the dead. Besides, Haruhiko-san is grieving for the loss of his childhood friend so make sure to be nice around him."

"I'd rather just avoid him all together, and my father."

"Why are they here anyway? Couldn't they have gotten away?"

"They're still planning on it, and we're leaving with them."

"We are?"

"Yes, that's why I allowed them to stay here. My father said that their helicopter couldn't land near the house because of the creature, but that it could land safely on the building and they could use the stairs to climb to the roof and have it fly them to my family's summer house. It was easier for them to drive here and wait than to try to drive all the way to the summer house. Because air travel would be the fastest way out of the creature's reach I agreed to let them stay here so we could escape with them. The roads are just too dangerous and jammed to attempt driving now."

"You actually let them stay here of your own free will." Misaki gasped.

"Yes, for you, I did."

"Me?"

"Of course, I had to make sure that you would get away from all of this. For your sake I pushed past my abhorrence towards my family and allowed them to stay here."

"Are you sure their plan is going to work out? The tentacles are starting to approach."

"The larger ones that can touch the roof top aren't here yet, so as long as the large ones aren't present, the plan should work."

"When do they plan on having the helicopter here?"

"It's taking a while, but it should be here in about two weeks."

"Two weeks? That long? We're already running low on food. We'll have to go outside and get more soon."

"He's right." Nowaki cut in after overhearing half of Misaki's statement.

"I'll go, Misaki will stay inside."

"Actually, Usami-san, Takahashi-kun's small stature and skinny body would be ideal to use in case we need to squeeze into small spaces." Nowaki pointed out.

"No. He's not going out there." Usagi refused.

"But Takahashi-kun is the smallest one here; even Takatsuki-kun is taller than him. Takahashi-kun's size could come in handy." Nowaki pointed out.

"'Could'? As in 'it may be completely unnecessary to expose him to all the dangers awaiting outside'? No. I don't care; I'm not letting him go outside, and especially not for a reason as weak as, ' _could_ come in handy'."

"Please don't talk about me like I'm not here." Misaki interrupted, "And, Usagi-san, if it's for all of our good then I think I should go."

"I said no, and I meant no."

"I'll be fine; you said it yourself that the tentacles have just barely touched the area. Going outside to make a quick trip to the store couldn't be that hazardous." Misaki reasoned.

"No, I'm not going to let you go outside and be raped to death. Even if you don't get caught you could still get hurt, and then what would we do? We can't go to a hospital."

"Nowaki was an excellent intern at the hospital before the creature attacked, I'm sure he'd have no problem taking care of Takahashi-kun." Hiroki tried to help the argument.

"Will he be able to save Misaki from severe internal bleeding? Being hit by a car? A punctured lung? A severe head injury, maybe? No, these are all possible things that could happen to him which would require hospitalization and even surgery, which I doubt even your lover has any knowledge of unless he studied a field of medicine he had no interest in pursuing."

"If anything happens to Takahashi-kun, I will accept full responsibility." Nowaki assured.

"If anything happens to Misaki your responsibility would be completely useless to me; but thankfully, Kusama-san, it's completely unnecessary as Misaki will be staying inside where he'll be safe."

"Usagi-san! You can't control whether or not I'll go."

"I can if I chain you to the bed."

"Usagi-san, you have chains?" Misaki questioned in disbelief, _"Was he planning something involving me and chains?"_ he shuddered to think, though he himself wasn't certain if his shudder was more in anticipation than fear.

"Akihiko!" Hiroki got the conversation back on topic, "We need more food, and the kid is small enough to get to the food if there's something blocking our way. It's as simple as that. You may chain him to the bed, but all eight of us will hold you back if need be. Even you can't take on all of us."

"Try me. When it comes to Misaki there's nothing I can't do."

"Usagi-san, don't be like that. Please just let me go."

Usagi narrowed his eyes at Misaki and remained silent for a while before saying, "So, when do we leave?"

"'We'?" Misaki asked surprised.

"Yes, we. Maybe I can't stop you from going Misaki, but no one can stop me from going with you."

"You shouldn't come you'd only slow us down, you just got over being sick after all." Misaki pointed out.

"I'll be fine; I have to go so I can protect Misaki."

"All right, then we'll leave in a week. We should be okay until then." Nowaki stated.

While everyone continued on with entertaining themselves for the rest of the day, Misaki was still anxious at the thought of Usagi going, _"He just got over the flu. Sure we'll have a week, but is that really long enough for him to fully recover? With the small portions of food we have to eat now and the coldness of the days recently will he get sick again? I think he'll be okay… but I'm still worried. For two weeks he didn't get any better. How long will it take next time? Usagi-san's still young, he's only thirty-one, but he's a smoker so his immune system is already compromised because of that. However, he doesn't have any more cigarettes, and he hasn't smoked since he got sick. Does that mean his immune system is stronger now?"_

Misaki's thoughts were interrupted by Usagi grabbing his wrist and dragging him up the stairs back to his room. Once behind closed doors, Misaki spoke, "Usagi-san, what the hell?"

"What do you think? We haven't had sex for almost three months, so you can imagine what I plan on doing now, can't you?"

"No! You just got over being sick and there are a lot of people here, what if someone walks in on us? What if they hear us?" Misaki tried to pass Usagi to reach the door, but Usagi used his cat like reflexes to catch Misaki by the arm before pulling Misaki in front of him and tossing him on the bed.

Misaki was about to sit up when Usagi pounced on top of him and kissed his young lover. Misaki tried to push him off at first, but the kiss felt so hot and passionate that he quickly gave up and unconsciously pulled the older man in closer. Usagi felt a sudden movement underneath him and his eyes flashed open in surprise, and he broke the kiss. Misaki looked at him in confusion and Usagi snickered before saying, "Misaki, do you realize what you just did?"

"Huh? What?" Misaki asked, still dazed from the kiss.

"You just spread your legs for me." Usagi pointed out.

Misaki looked down and sure enough, he had. Misaki's jaw dropped as a dark blush covered his face and his attempts to get away ensued again. "Nope." Usagi said as he pinned Misaki's wrists above his head and Misaki tried to struggle out of the firm, but not painful grip, "You can't honestly expect me to let you go after doing something like that."

Usagi slid his hand up Misaki's shirt while Misaki squirmed, but Usagi still refused to let him go and his hand continued to travel upwards until it found the nipple it was looking for. Usagi caressed Misaki's nipple lightly to harden it a little before he tweaked it, causing Misaki to cry out slightly. _"Oh, trying to hold back that voice of yours huh? I guess tweaking isn't going to be enough, but let's see if you can hold back after this."_ He thought as he lifted up Misaki's shirt and lowered his head. His tongue slipped out of his mouth to lick Misaki's neglected nipple. The bud tightened instantly, and for added measure, Usagi breathed on the wet area which caused Misaki to shiver, but he still refused to moan loudly.

Usagi decided to change his tactic and simply clamped his lips down around the pink bud and began to suck on it while his free hand did not ignore Misaki's other nipple. Misaki's cries grew louder and he pleaded, "D-don't touch them b-both at the same t-time."

"Why not? You're already this hard just from a few caresses." Usagi teased as his hand moved from Misaki's chest to the growing bulge in his pants.

"Sh-shut up!" Misaki snapped.

"Hm, I bet it feels awfully tight down there doesn't it? Don't worry, I won't let you suffer." He sneered before he undid Misaki's pants and pulled them down along with his underwear before taking ahold of his lover's already weeping erection and he started to move his hand languidly up and down the boy's shaft.

"St-stop, Usagi-san! What about… the others?"

"It won't be a problem if you just keep you voice down, you can do that right? Or does it feel so good that you simply can't help it?" he smirked.

Misaki was about to say something scathing in reply, but Usagi slid downward and enveloped his mouth around Misaki's head. Misaki bit back a cry as Usagi lightly sucked on Misaki's head while simultaneously teasing him with his tongue.

Misaki bit down as hard as he could to keep his mouth shut and he even covered his mouth with his hands to further muffle his moans. Usagi accepted Misaki's challenge and moved his mouth further down Misaki's shaft, taking him all in. While he tried everything he could to make Misaki cry out the boy was doing an amazing job at keeping his voice down, and Usagi was impressed, but refused to lose. He thought of something that had always worked before and he thoroughly coated two fingers with his saliva from the blow job he was giving, and once they were properly lubricated he softly rubbed Misaki's entrance with his index finger until he felt Misaki starting to twitch invitingly.

Usagi inserted his index finger first until he felt Misaki relax enough to add his middle finger as well. Once the two fingers were together, he began to search for the boy's sweet bundle of nerves. Misaki suddenly crying out in pleasure alerted him to the fact that he had found it, and he heard a change in Misaki's muffled moans telling him the boy was about to climax. Usagi pressed against the spot once more and Misaki swiftly grabbed a pillow and covered his face before he climaxed hard in Usagi's mouth.

Usagi knew Misaki would hate it, but he swallowed everything Misaki shot in his mouth. "Damn it, Usagi-san! I told you to stop doing that!" Misaki spat as he removed the pillow from his face.

"Why should I? There's nothing wrong with it."

"Just don't."

"Give me a valid reason and I won't." Usagi challenged as he removed Misaki's shirt before taking his own off as well.

Misaki thought for a moment, but failed to think of a real reason why it was bad for his lover to swallow his essence, but that may have been because Usagi hadn't given Misaki a moment to think before he started fingering him. Usagi wanted to make sure that Misaki was still relaxed enough for him to finally insert himself. Upon being satisfied with Misaki's present state, he undid his pants, but was too impatient to actually remove them. He pressed the head of his shaft, already lubed with his own pre-cum, against Misaki's entrance before thrusting effortlessly inside of him. Because it had been a couple of months since they had had sex, Misaki felt tight to Usagi, who was eager to point it out, "Damn, you're tight. Are you all right?"

"Shut up!" Misaki snapped as his face flushed with embarrassment.

Usagi figured it would be all right for him to start moving, but he did so slowly to allow Misaki a chance to get used to the sensation before he gradually increased the speed and hardness of his thrusts. Misaki, for his part, hadn't noticed his lover's careful efforts as he had been having sex with Usagi for years, and sex, in certain positions, had stopped being painful for him long ago and it just felt good to him now.

Misaki was too distracted by the sex they were having to notice Usagi leaving love marks all over his body. _"If I leave enough hickies on him, everyone will know who he belongs to."_ Usagi grinned slyly to himself.

Once the front half of Misaki's body was covered, he lifted his head and pulled out of the boy, "Misaki, turn around."

"Wh-what? Wait, Usagi-san!"

The older man simply turned Misaki over himself and once he was on all fours, he penetrated him again, stopping Misaki's protests instantly. _"He always objects whenever we change to another position, I wonder why…"_ he thought as he continued his territorial marking. He knew several sensitive areas on Misaki's back and made sure to mark those places too. While he busied his mouth in that manner, his hands refused to remain idle; one was stroking Misaki's arousal while the other was caressing his nipple softly, but then tweaking it when the boy least expected him to.

Misaki realized he was losing the fight to stay silent, and tried to grab the pillow again, but realized, to his horror, that he had flung to too far for him to reach. "U-Usa-Usagi-san… no more. I'm going… to come." He panted heavily.

"That's fine, so am I." the older man admitted as he increased the speed and hardness of his thrusts, aiming for that treasure trove of nerves inside of his lover.

He listened closely to Misaki's moans and once the boy couldn't keep his voice down any longer, Usagi covered Misaki's mouth with his own in a passionate kiss just before they climaxed together.

Usagi released Misaki from the kiss and pulled out of him, but the two stayed as they were for a moment while they caught their breath. After Usagi's breathing returned to normal he stood up and said, "Well let's go take a bath."

"No! If I take a bath with you we'll just end up having sex again."

"Yes, that's the idea." Usagi confessed shamelessly as he quickly zipped up and buttoned his pants. He threw his shirt over Misaki before hoisting him up onto his shoulder and carrying him out of the room towards the bathroom. Misaki wanted to protest, but everyone else in the apartment was sleeping and he would have surely died from embarrassment if any of them woke up.

After spending hours in the bathroom, the two made a quick and quiet, so as not to wake Kaoruko who was surprisingly not there anyway, stop to Misaki's room for a change of clothes and then they returned to Usagi's room where they swiftly collapsed on the bed. Usagi turned over and wrapped his arms around a completely exhausted and half asleep Misaki who groaned tiredly, "No, Usagi-san, no more. I can't do any more."

Usagi chuckled at Misaki's assumption before saying, "No, I'm just as worn out as you are Misaki; I just want to cuddle now."

"I highly doubt you're as worn as me." Misaki muttered, but lacked the energy to try to move out of his lover's embrace.

"It's true, I am."

Misaki rolled his eyes in disbelief but stayed silent as he was too close to sleep to attempt making a coherent sentence.

Usagi soon realized Misaki had fallen asleep and he covered his lover up before doing the same for himself. Once he was covered, he slid himself on top of Misaki and rested his head on the boy's chest before he fell asleep to the lulling sound of Misaki's soft heartbeat.


	8. Chapter 8

Misaki woke up to the feeling of something hot and heavy crushing him which he quickly discovered was his lover. "Get off of me, damn Usagi-san!" he growled.

"'Get off'? So early in the morning? You really have gotten ballsy, Misaki." Usagi grinned slyly.

"That's not what I meant and you know it!"

Usagi simply pushed Misaki back down on the bed and the boy began to protest, "Usagi-san! Stop it! The others will be waking up soon and I have to make breakfast!"

"I'd rather eat you than breakfast."

"That's disgusting!" Misaki flailed his arms around in an effort to free himself from the older man, but Usagi just pinned Misaki's arms down and raised the boy's hands above his head.

While one hand secured the boy's wrists, the other hand removed his young lover's shirt and began to feel him up. Misaki's protests became weaker while something else began to grow in its place. "Well, looks like we have an early riser." Usagi teased.

"Th-that's just because it's morning." Misaki insisted.

"Looks like I'd better take care of it then. After all I'd hate to see you suffer." He chuckled before removing Misaki's pajama pants along with his underwear and then he slid downward. He used his hand to play with the boy's erection while at the same time licking his shaft teasingly. "Damn, you're this hard even after all the times we did it last night? You're insatiable." He smirked.

Misaki wanted to wipe his lover's cocky smirk right off of his face, but at the moment his mind was becoming too muddled. He still tried to protest, but was rapidly finding it impossible to do so and he fell almost completely silent; the only sounds he made were the pleasure filled moans that he couldn't muffle.

Usagi decided to stop torturing the boy and he took his lover entirely in his mouth which caused Misaki's moans to grow louder, and his reaction pleased Usagi greatly. As the two allowed themselves to get lost in the moment, the sound of Usagi's bedroom door suddenly opening caught them off guard and they both froze to see Kaoruko standing in the doorway; her shrieking voice was halted instantly upon seeing a completely naked Misaki who was covered in hickies, and a shirtless Usagi whose mouth was still wrapped around his lover's member.

Misaki wished that he could melt away into nonexistence, but Usagi just glared darkly at Kaoruko who regained her composure after staring a little too long at Misaki's naked body; she turned her head away to hide her blush before saying, "Finish up what you're doing and then let Misaki come downstairs; I want to make scones this morning." She then excused herself without waiting for a reply and closed the door behind her.

Usagi was about to continue, but Misaki pushed him off, "No." he asserted before sliding away from the older man and he attempted to stand but fell down instantly.

"Are you okay?" Usagi asked as he laughed internally, but remained straight faced.

"Of course not!" Misaki snapped.

"Well if you want, I can always carry you downstairs."

"No thank you." Misaki growled lowly.

"Then at least let me help you up." Usagi offered his hand to Misaki who narrowed his eyes at him, but took his hand anyway.

Usagi helped Misaki stand and the boy redressed himself and darted back into his room to change his clothes before he hurried into the kitchen to help Kaoruko who was already working on the dough.

"Hey, where were you last night Kaoruko-san? You weren't in my room."

"No, I fell asleep while watching T.V. and now I have a kink in my neck. Misaki, would you mind rubbing it out for me, I can't seem to get the right amount of pressure on it."

"Oh, sure." Misaki agreed.

As he moved to do so, Mizuki harsh voice halted him, "As one of the few cooking people, would you mind making breakfast first?"

"Shut it! He was just helping me."

"Maybe he's being a little too helpful, don't you think? Are you going to have him trim your nails for you too?"

"Excuse me?!"

Kaoruko was about to fight back, but Fuyuhiko silenced them, "Enough bickering children, it's too early for that and I'm sure you both have better things to do."

This caused the two to stop and Kaoruko and Misaki continued to make breakfast while Shinobu and Miyagi stood by to wash the dishes once they were done.

For the rest of the week, the daily routine had returned to mostly normal for Misaki, including his sex life, but the knowledge that he would have to go outside and face the creature lingered in the back of his mind. It was terrifying enough to think about going outside, but adding his lover to the group only made him worry more. _"How am I going to watch out for Usagi-san and the tentacles? Usagi-san is smart, but he can get side tracked easily; I can't take my eyes off of him for one second, but how am I supposed to watch both at the same time?"_

Misaki still hadn't found a solution when the time came for them to leave. When the day arrived, Misaki, Nowaki, and Hiroki emptied out their bags to use to carry the food in, but as Usagi didn't have one, Misaki gave him his to use while he grabbed his duffle bag instead. In order to allow them to move swiftly, Nowaki thought it best not to carry any weapons, not that they had any beyond some kitchen knives anyway.

While the four left the apartment complex, Miyagi and Haruhiko stayed stationed at the building's door in case either of their assistance was needed. Unlike them, Haruhiko and Miyagi both had weapons, Miyagi had a katana he bought online when he was a young and drunk, and Haruhiko had an axe that he had taken from the Usami house before they left.

"Where did you get the sword?" Haruhiko asked.

"Online."

"Is it even sharp?"

"I don't know. I've had it put away in my closet since I bought it."

"So you have no idea how to use it I'm guessing."

"Usami-san, do you know how to use an axe?" Miyagi questioned.

Haruhiko remained quiet after that and the two men continued their watch in silence. Nowaki exited first followed by Hiroki, and then Misaki while Usagi trailed closely behind him, ready to pull him back at the first hint of danger.

The roads were flooded with traffic, but there was no sign of the tentacles. Nowaki took the lead and decided that the best way to cross the street was by climbing over the hoods of the cars which caused a few people to honk in anger, but nothing else. After several blocks they began to approach the store, and a sudden movement out of the corner of Misaki's eye caught his attention and he turned his head to see many tentacles starting to crawl in their direction.

Misaki froze which Usagi noticed and he turned his attention in the direction Misaki was looking and called out, "Kusama-san!"

Nowaki and Hiroki both turned and saw the creature's limbs as well. "Let's make this quick." Nowaki decided as they all hurried their pace.

"Are you insane? You see how close they are already; they'll over run the store while we're inside."

"Akihiko, we don't have a choice, we need the food." Hiroki argued, "We can't starve for a week while we wait to make our escape."

Usagi remained silent, he knew Hiroki was right, but he was anxious about Misaki. Misaki could sense his lover unease and tried to reassure him, "I'll be fine Usagi-san."

Usagi wasn't convinced, but he didn't try arguing his point further as it would only waste time, _"I'll just have to keep an eye on him."_ He thought.

When they reached the store there was a large amount of clutter everywhere; no doubt from previous scavengers. Misaki noted quite a few places he would have to squeeze into in order to reach the food sandwiched between a couple of knocked over shelves. Usagi was reluctant to allow Misaki to enter such an obviously dangerous space, but Misaki insisted that he would be fine and told his lover to start collecting food like the others.

Misaki could feel his heart pounding in his chest as he hurried to fill his bag with food. The door to the store was an automatic sliding door that the owner hadn't tried to lock before they abandoned it, and that meant that there was nothing to stop the tentacles from entering. While the four rushed to gather enough food, Hiroki suddenly cried out which alerted all of them.

"Hiro-san!" Nowaki rushed over to him and saw that a large tentacle had entered the store and had completely taken over the automatic door. Nowaki grabbed a heavy can and threw it at the window, shattering it. Hiroki leapt out of the window and Nowaki called for Usagi and Misaki to follow suit.

Usagi was trying to reach Misaki, but the tentacle was blocking him and seemed to be going for Misaki. Misaki crawled out from under the shelves and ran to the basement with the tentacle at his heels. He tried to close the door, but the creature pushed its way through and he jumped down the stairs and tried to escape through the basement's window, but it was too high up for him to reach.

Misaki expected the tentacle to wrap itself around him at any time, but discovered that it had gotten stuck in the door way. It began thrashing around angrily and broke the water pipes in the basement which made the room start to flood rapidly. Because the tentacle was stuck fast, it prevented the water from leaking out. As the basement flooded, Misaki realized that he could use the water to float up to the basement window and escape.

The icy water was making him feel cold and he started to shiver, but he tried to ignore it and focused on staying afloat, which meant he had to abandon his duffle bag. When he was finally able to reach the window, he found out that it was painted shut. Misaki thought for a moment before realizing that he could use one of the broken pieces of pipe to shatter the window and escape. He swam over to the water pipes and took a breath before going under the surface to find a piece of pipe.

Meanwhile, Usagi was trying to make the tentacle recoil from the basement door by throwing heavy cans and jars at it while Nowaki tried to pull him outside, "Usami-san, stop it!"

"Not until I save Misaki!"

"Akihiko!" Hiroki's urgent call from outside made Usagi leap out of the window and Nowaki followed closely behind.

"Hiroki?"

"Over here!" he alerted them, "Help me find something to break the glass with." He said once they arrived behind the building, "Takahashi-kun—"

Usagi froze for one split second upon seeing Misaki floating lifelessly behind the basement window, but Usagi's life sprang back to him and in one fluid movement, he punched through the window with all his might. He knocked the remaining glass off the frame with his very bloody and injured hand before he grabbed Misaki and pulled him out on the street.

Nowaki leapt into action and kneeled beside Misaki, "He's not breathing. Usami-san, give him two breaths, I'll do the chest compressions."

Usagi tilted Misaki's chin up and opened his mouth before pinching his nose closed and he gave Misaki two breaths before Nowaki started the thirty chest compressions. Misaki didn't respond to the first set, but in the middle of the second set, he jolted back to life and turned over before spitting out a mouthful of water. Usagi felt so much relief wash over him that he felt a bit dizzy, but that could have also been from blood loss as well. Regardless, he ignored his own needs and softly rubbed Misaki's back to help him breathe. Misaki twisted over onto his stomach after that and coughed violently a few times before he got sick. After that he sat up on his knees and looked at Usagi, "Us-Usagi-san…" Misaki couldn't stop coughing to complete his sentence but pointed at his lover's bloody hand filled with shards of glass.

"I'm fine." He lied.

Misaki wanted to call out the older man's obvious lie, but between the coughs and shivers, he found it nearly impossible to speak. Usagi took his coat off and wrapped Misaki in it before saying, "Kusama-san, take Misaki back to the apartment."

"Wh-what about… you Usa-Usagi-san?" Misaki managed.

"I don't think I should try to stand." Usagi answered.

Nowaki examined Usagi's heavily bleeding hand and noticed a particularly deep gash that stretched vertically up his wrist. Nowaki had Usagi lay down on the ground and kept his arm elevated before wrapping his coat over Usagi's hand to try to stop the bleeding. "Hiro-san, I have to take Takahashi-kun back to the apartment complex before he becomes hypothermic, will you be all right staying here with Usami-san?" Nowaki hated the idea of leaving Hiroki outside with the tentacles, but he doubted Hiroki would have been able to run while carrying Misaki and he needed to retrieve Miyagi and Haruhiko to help him get Usagi back to the apartment without causing him to lose any more blood.

"I'll be fine." Hiroki assured him as he took Usagi's arm from him.

"I'm going to get professor Miyagi and Usami-san's brother to help bring him back, it's important to make sure he stays very still right now. He may still go into shock if he doesn't stop bleeding soon."

"I'll be fine here, just hurry back." Hiroki said firmly.

"I will." Nowaki promised before he moved back over to Misaki and picked him up.

Misaki realized what was going on and tried to get Nowaki to put him down as he didn't want to leave Usagi's side, "No! Usagi-san!"

Misaki's attempts were weak and feeble as he was still shivering and coughing hard, so Nowaki just tightened his grip and ran away.

Hiroki kept Usagi's arm elevated; the blood had already managed to seep through Nowaki's coat, but it seemed like it was starting to stop. _"This was a complete failure."_ He thought to himself, _"We only have three bags of food now and two of us are incapacitated out of four men. It would have been better to leave the kid behind. It's not like any of the food under the shelves were of particular value than what was already out in the open. That's not to say Nowaki's plan was bad, but it would have certainly been better to have a couple of scouts check out the store first to see where the food we needed was located. Then we never would have brought the kid, and we could have taken professor Miyagi along instead and would have walked away with four bags of food."_ Hiroki sighed, _"It's not like it's the kid's fault though. If he hadn't been under the shelves, he could have gotten away with the rest of us."_

Haruhiko and Miyagi continued to stand in awkward silence until they spotted Nowaki running with Misaki in his arms and both men felt their stomachs drop; Haruhiko out of concern for Misaki, and Miyagi out of concern for his best friend and co-worker, Hiroki.

"What happened to Misaki?"

"Where's Kamijo?" both men asked their questions at the same time.

"Takahashi-kun is all right, just a little cold and wet." Nowaki explained as he set Misaki down and dropped his bag, "Usami-san was hurt pretty badly so I need both of your help getting him here."

The three men left swiftly and Misaki sat back against the wall. He tried to stop shivering and coughing, but he had no control over it, and he started to think about his lover instead, "Usagi-san!" he sobbed as he started to cry which only made it even more difficult to breathe, but he couldn't stop once he started. He was so scared for the older man after seeing how much blood he had already lost because of him.

He wanted Usagi back. He wanted to see his amethyst eyes and warm smile. He wanted to feel his cold hands and the heat of his body. He wanted to smell his warm, familiar scent. And he wanted to hear his low whispering voice telling him that he loved him, over and over again. "Usagi-san!" he wailed as he continued to cough and sob in the empty hallway.


	9. Chapter 9

Nowaki lead the two men back to where he left Hiroki and Usagi. Nowaki checked on Usagi and noticed that the bleeding had mostly stopped. "Anymore tentacles?" Nowaki asked his lover.

"I haven't—" Hiroki was cut off when a smaller tentacle had wrapped itself around his ankle and jerked him up in the air.

Everyone heard a sickening crack as Hiroki was lifted up by the tentacle. "Hiro-san!" Nowaki cried as he rushed over, trying to reach his lover.

Miyagi and Haruhiko both began to attack the tentacle with their weapons. The tentacle thrashed around and smacked Miyagi back against the wall, instantly knocking him out cold. Nowaki forced himself to let Haruhiko continue the fight to free Hiroki while he tried to revive Miyagi. Haruhiko hit the tentacle with his axe with all of his strength and the tentacle hit him back, but dropped Hiroki before recoiling away from the men.

Nowaki had succeeded in reviving Miyagi, who had cracked open his head and undoubtedly had a concussion, and he rushed over to Hiroki who had a compound fracture, as evidenced by the bone that was sticking out. Nowaki took off Hiroki's coat and covered his head with it to prevent his lover from seeing the extent of the damage, in fear he would go into shock; Hiroki, for his part, was doing everything he could not to scream in agony. Nowaki wished he could fix his lover's leg immediately, but knew they would have to wait until they got back.

Haruhiko forced himself to stand and Nowaki noticed the man's arm dangling unnaturally low, "Your arm is dislocated. Let me fix it." Nowaki quickly popped Haruhiko's arm back in its socket and checked him over, but didn't see any other injuries.

"Professor Miyagi, can you stand?" Nowaki asked him.

"I'm a bit off balanced, but I'll manage." He assured him as he slowly stood up.

"I'll carry Hiro-san. Help him carry Usami-san." Nowaki instructed before he picked his lover up off the ground, _"This was a disaster."_ Nowaki thought to himself as the men began their journey to the apartment complex.

Shinobu paced anxiously around the living room. He didn't like Miyagi leaving the apartment even if he would still be inside the building; he just couldn't get past the nagging feeling that something bad was about to happen. Kaoruko looked calm, but she was fidgeting uncomfortably, obviously worried with how long it was taking them to come back. Fuyuhiko remained expressionless and patient, while Mizuki appeared to be very irritated.

Shinobu looked at the clock and felt ill seeing how slowly the seconds ticked by. He was about to leave the apartment and go down to see his lover just to calm his nerves, but at that moment Haruhiko leapt through the door, "Come help." He ordered before turning around and running back down the hallway to reach the elevator.

The four followed closely behind him and once they reached the floor level of the apartment, Shinobu froze and felt his heart lurch upon seeing Miyagi still bleeding from his head and looking like he might pass out at any moment.

Kaoruko nearly screamed upon seeing Misaki, still soaking wet and struggling for breath, and Fuyuhiko himself cried out upon seeing the state of his youngest son, "Akihiko! Are you okay?"

"Go away." Usagi growled at his father, not at all moved by the man's concern.

Unlike the others, Mizuki looked utterly pissed by the scene set before him, "Can't even handle a simple task as that?" he muttered, "I bet we have Takahashi-kun to blame for this."

Usagi tried to muster the strength to stand so he could deliver a well-deserved punch to his cousin's face, but Kaoruko beat him to it and slapped Mizuki hard with the back of her hand, "This is hardly the time for you to behave like an ass! You should do something useful by helping the injured get back upstairs or at least carrying the damn bags!" she hissed, "Come on, Misaki." Kaoruko bent down and helped Misaki stand by having him lean on her for support. Besides Misaki's legs being shaky, he was starting to feel dizzy, and he still couldn't stop coughing or shivering, but with Kaoruko's help he managed to stand.

"Why are you soaking wet?" she asked him curiously.

"I drowned." He managed to breathe out before coughing some more. Kaoruko gasped, but stopped herself from asking any further questions; it was obvious that Misaki was not going to be able to answer her.

Shinobu was helping Miyagi get to the elevator, while the older man was trying hard to reassure his stunned silent lover, "I'm fine Shinobu-chin. Just a head wound, they do bleed a lot you know, so it's undoubtedly not severe. Maybe a minor concussion, but nothing bad, so you don't have to be so worried."

Shinobu felt sick looking at the current state of his lover, but his rage built up inside of him and he quickly broke his silence, "You said you'd stay inside the building!"

"Usami-sensei got hurt, we needed to go help."

"You should have come to get me! I could have watched out for you!"

"Shinobu, you don't have a weapon." Miyagi pointed out.

"Shut up!" Shinobu snapped because he didn't have a proper come back. After his outburst, his rage subsided and he became upset instead, "Miyagi…" he tried hard not to sob as tears threatened his eyes.

"Shinobu-chin." Miyagi kissed his lover softly and hugged him tightly, "I'm sorry. Will you forgive me?" he asked.

"Yes… Old Man." He muttered and tried to hide his blush.

While Kaoruko, Misaki, Shinobu, and Miyagi had made it to the elevator, Fuyuhiko was still trying to help his youngest son stand up, but Usagi continued to reject his help. Eventually, Haruhiko became frustrated with his little half-brother and snarled, "Stop being so childish and get up." He then grabbed Usagi himself and started to drag him to the elevator. Nowaki followed closely behind them with Hiroki still in his arms while Fuyuhiko and Mizuki carried their bags of food.

When they had returned to the apartment, Nowaki decided to work on Usagi's hand before the other two men. He cleaned Usagi's hand the best he could before he had him sit down at the table while he took out a light and a pair of tweezers to remove the glass shards. The wounds on Usagi's hand were not deep and the shards were easy to remove as they were not too imbedded within the skin. Nowaki discovered that most of Usagi's blood loss had come from the cut in his wrist which did require stitches. After stitching his wrist and disinfecting the wounds, he bandaged the older man's hand up before saying, "You lost a lot of blood, so I'm putting you back on bed rest. I'll also leave something sweet for you to eat and drink after you've had a bath, but keep the bandages dry."

Usagi growled at the thought of being stuck in his bed again and being too weak to molest Misaki. However, the man was too tired to voice his irritation and he moved over to Misaki whose condition had remained as it was when he was in the hallway; even despite Kaoruko's best efforts to dry him with a towel. "Misaki, what are you still doing in those wet clothes? Come on, let's go take a bath."

Misaki would have normally protested, but he felt so cold that the promise of a hot bath sounded good, and he also knew that Usagi was too weak to try anything anyway. Misaki was able to stand on his own that time and he helped Usagi climb the stairs and they entered the bathroom. The two removed their dirtied clothes and showered off before bathing; the whole while they remained mindful of Usagi's bandages.

After their shower, Usagi looked like he was about to pass out, but with Misaki's insistence, he stayed awake long enough to eat the little sweets and drink the juice Nowaki had left him. Misaki had already changed into his pajamas and handed Usagi a change of clothes while he took the plate and glass for him. Misaki thought about how Usagi looked very pale and cold and it worried him, "I'll be right back, I'm just going to put these in the sink."

"Misaki, how are you feeling? You sound hoarse."

"That's just from coughing."

"But you're still coughing, even now. I'm not sure a drowning victim should still be coughing after so many hours."

"I'm fine. Just to be sure, I'll have Kusama-san take a look at me while I'm downstairs."

"Misaki, I just don't want anything more to happen to you." Misaki couldn't bring himself to turn and face the man. The tone of his lover's voice was painful enough to hear, he knew that whatever look Usagi had on his face would kill him.

"I'm fine Usagi-san."

"You were dead, Misaki. I almost lost you. I was so scared; I have never felt so much fear and pain in my life before. Don't ever put me through that again."

"I won't." Misaki promised.

"Then I believe you won't." Misaki heard a small smile in the way Usagi spoke and he turned to see that his lover was giving him a small smile, to let the boy know that he had reassured him, "Misaki, I love you."

Misaki blushed and wished he had the courage to say it back before he left the room. When he got downstairs, he saw Nowaki finishing up Miyagi's stitches. As he placed the dishes in the sink, he observed Nowaki and noticed that the man seemed to be on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion. Misaki rethought his plan to tell Nowaki about his cough, _"I promised Usagi-san, but surely it can wait until tomorrow. Nothing is going to happen within a few hours."_

Misaki decided to wait and he sluggishly made his way back up to the bedroom where Usagi was waiting for him, "What are you still doing up? Aren't you tired?"

"I'm mostly cold."

"Let me get another blanket."

"No need, I'll be warm once Misaki comes to bed and cuddles with me."

"Yes, yes." Misaki sighed in annoyance, but was actually happy that his lover was starting to act like his old self.

He crawled into bed and Usagi wasted no time in wrapping his arms around the boy. Misaki wanted to protest, but after feeling how cold his lover's usually naturally hot body was, he fell silent and actually pressed his core against Usagi's in an effort to warm him up even more. The gesture was not unseen by the older man who gave him a "thank you kiss".

"Usa-Usagi-san, are you sure you're feeling okay?" Misaki mumbled.

"I'm feeling a multitude of things, most of which are rather unpleasant, but I don't regret what I did. I'd go through worse than this if it meant you'd be all right."

"I am."

"Really? So the cough?" Usagi inquired, wanting to hear what Nowaki had to say about it.

Misaki froze for a second, _"Damn it! I should have known he would ask, but I really expected him to be asleep by the time I came back. What should I tell him? I don't want to lie, but if I tell Usagi-san that I plan on waiting until tomorrow morning he wouldn't let me, and I don't want to stress him out. I guess I have no choice. Usagi-san, please forgive me."_ Misaki forced himself to cough so he could pretend that that was the reason for his moment of silence, "He's bathing right now, but I plan to ask as soon as he's out."

Usagi loosened his grip on his lover so the boy would be able to wiggle out of his arms when Nowaki finished in the bathroom. "Make sure that you do, and then wake me up so you can tell me what he told you." Usagi added firmly.

"I will." Misaki's heart twisted at his lie; he felt like he was betraying his lover, but he just didn't want to cause him any more trouble than he already had.

Usagi buried his face in Misaki's hair and then fell asleep, _"Always quick to fall asleep, huh?"_ Misaki thought, but was unnerved by the sounds of the older man's labored breathing. _"Please be okay, Usagi-san."_ Misaki silently begged as he hid his face in his lover's shirt, trying to prevent the tears that threatened his eyes from falling.

Nowaki collapsed on his futon next to Hiroki after the two had finished their bath, "How are you feeling, Hiro-san?" Nowaki struggled to stay alert. He was surprised at how quickly his energy had drained, but an average day at the hospital was nothing compared to the hell he just experienced.

"My leg still hurts, but the pain killers you gave me have made it much duller."

"We don't have crutches here so I'll have to carry you around." Nowaki informed him, knowing the older man would hate it.

"That's fine." Hiroki sighed, he didn't want to be seen as feeble, but there was no helping it. He couldn't walk on his injured leg, and he had no desire to attempt it; it hurt enough without applying any weight to it, "How are you doing?"

"I'm tired, but I'm fine. I'll have to routinely check on you, Professor Miyagi, and Usami-san, so I'll be busy for a while."

"Will you be all right?"

"Yeah, I haven't had to deal with three patients at the same time since I was still working, so it's nice to get back to the norm. At the same time though, I'm worried I may be a little rusty in treating three people at once. I'll have to do all I can to become energetic again so I don't miss a beat."

"You won't, I know you won't." Hiroki encouraged him, "Nowaki, how are we on food now?"

"Well, unfortunately, we couldn't get away with four bags of food as Takahashi-kun's had to be abandoned in the basement, but I was able to carry you and our bags, and Usami-san refused to let go of Takahashi-kun's book bag, so we have enough to last until the helicopter is supposed to be here."

"Then it was successful, despite the 'casualties'."

"I wish you hadn't gotten hurt. I should have thought things through more carefully."

"Everyone is still alive, Nowaki. All that matters is that we are all alive to learn from our mistakes, and you're the one who made sure that we did survive."

Nowaki hugged Hiroki tightly, thankful that his lover could always reassure him, "I love you, Hiro-san." Nowaki sighed before he suddenly fell asleep.

Hiroki remained in his lover's warm embrace and whispered, "I love you too."


	10. Chapter 10

Misaki had fully intended to inform Nowaki of his cough, but the man always seemed to be so busy and Misaki didn't want to bother him further, _"I'm sure I'll be fine. It'll probably clear up on its own."_

When Usagi questioned him about what Nowaki said in regards to his cough, Misaki lied and told him that Nowaki said he was fine. Misaki even stifled his coughs whenever he was within ear shot of someone to pretend like he wasn't still coughing. While this had worked on everyone else, Usagi saw right through his lover and asked Nowaki to check on him.

Nowaki tried to make the time to examine Misaki, but soon discovered it difficult to find the spare time to look at him when he was already taking care of his own lover, who was starting to run out of pain killers, and Miyagi, whose temperamental lover would snap whenever Miyagi's concussion started to show symptoms, and Usagi, who wouldn't stop badgering him about checking Misaki, and Misaki's own aloofness was not helping either. Whenever he tried to take the boy aside for a moment, Misaki was always mysteriously busy, and would just assure the older man that he was fine anyway.

Four days had gone by and not only did Misaki's cough not go away, but that morning he felt oddly cold and he was having breathing problems; for some reason his chest felt so tight. Usagi was mostly separated from his lover who spent all of his time downstairs while he recovered upstairs in his room, but Usagi decided he was strong enough to spend some time downstairs that day, and he wanted to observe Misaki in the clarity of daylight. He started to feel light headed when he reached the living room so he sat down on the couch for a moment and watched Misaki in the kitchen for a while.

Upon seeing Misaki in the light of the afternoon, he noticed his lover's attempts to stifle his coughs. _"He shouldn't still be coughing."_ Usagi grew concerned and he stood up and walked over to the counter to give him something to lean on for support, "Misaki."

"Usagi-san…" Misaki kept his head down so his bangs would hide his eyes from his lover.

"What?" it sounded as if Misaki wanted to say something and Usagi was anxious to know what the boy had to say, and the weak tone of his voice was not reassuring.

"I—" Misaki was about to answer when his legs suddenly gave out from beneath him.

"Misaki!" Usagi caught him before he fell and he softly lowered the boy to the floor.

Misaki wrapped his arms around himself in a tight hug as he started to shake violently. Usagi had never seen Misaki shake so much before and it seemed as if the boy had no control over it which terrified Usagi all the more, "Misaki! Misaki!"

"Usa-Usagi-san… I c-can't st-st-stop." Misaki cried.

"It's okay, it's okay." Usagi tried to comfort his lover as he held him tightly in his arms.

Nowaki had heard what was going on and hurried over to them. He saw Misaki shaking and coughing aggressively and placed his hand on the boy's forehead, "It's an episode of rigors. It occurs more commonly in children that have a bacterial infection and a high fever, but it can occur in adults too."

"Bacterial infection? High fever? How high is it? What's wrong with him?"

"I'll examine him after the rigors stop. Give him a luke warm bath, it'll help bring the fever down and stop the rigors. Don't make it any hotter or colder than luke warm or you'll make him worse. I'll wait for the two of you outside of your room Usami-san."

Usagi had to carry Misaki into the bathroom and he ran the bath and left Misaki in there for a moment while he retrieved a change of clothes for them as he had already decided to make that bath their night wash as neither of them were going to be staying up any later due to the turn of events.

Usagi returned to the bathroom and removed his own clothes before stripping his lover, who was not pleased, but Misaki's hands were too shaky for him to try removing his own clothes and the spasms from coughing also weren't helping, so he had to admit it was necessary. Usagi stepped into the bath tub and dragged Misaki in with him and set his lover down on his lap. Misaki blushed as he tried not to think about how awkward the position was. Usagi's arms remained wrapped around him tightly and Misaki realized that his arms were wrapped around Usagi as well, but he made no attempt to release him from his hold, and the two firm and hairless bodies remained entwined until Misaki's rigors died away.

When the last of the boy's shivers ebbed away, Usagi let go of him and left the tub so he could lay a towel down for Misaki to sit on. When he placed Misaki down on the towel he put another towel over him so he could work on drying the boy. "Usa-Usagi-san, aren't… you cold?" Misaki gasped in between his coughs.

"I'm mostly dry now anyway so it doesn't matter." He answered as he finished drying him as best as he could and turned the blow dryer on to finish drying Misaki's damp hair.

When Misaki was completely dry, Usagi redressed his lover who protested even more than he did when he was stripping him, "Usagi-san!"

"What? It's not like I haven't done this before." He pointed out.

Misaki recalled all the times Usagi had "helped him" dress. From straightening out his clothes the first time he wore a suit to college, _"He could have just fixed the tie and I could have re-buttoned the shirt, he didn't have to try to strip me."_ or the time that Usagi had bought him the mountain of suits and after tricking him into accepting all of them he generously decided to properly teach him how to wear a suit, starting with the underwear, _"As if I needed him to do all that! Shameless pervert! And the tie was still crooked!"_ or the time Usagi decided to teach Misaki how to properly tie the obi on his yukata for the festival they went to, _"I shouldn't have asked him to teach me how to tie it, but I did. I always do knowing full well what will happen; so why do I always ask him then? I constantly protest, but if I really didn't like it, I could always look up how to do these things… could it be that I actually like when Usagi molests me? It's like I'm tempting him and he always takes the bait? But I always thought that it was Usagi being clever and_ me _always taking the bait… but no, I'm the one always saying, 'Usagi-san help me tie this' or 'show me how to do that'… oh God, am I the one making the first move in all those situations?!"_

While Misaki thought about this, Usagi finished redressing himself as well and helped Misaki stand, but upon seeing how wobbly his lover's legs were, he decided to carry him back, with the boy attempting to protest in between coughs the entire way back to Usagi's room. Usagi set him down on the bed and Nowaki entered the room. "I think Takahashi-kun may be more comfortable talking to me alone, would you mind stepping outside?"

Usagi remained silent and walked out of the room, but shot a nasty glare at Nowaki as he passed by him. Usagi decided to pass the time by picking up the clothes and towels they had left behind on the bathroom floor and he placed them in the hamper, but didn't know how to use the washer so he just left them in the hamper. Upon returning upstairs, he saw Kaoruko and Haruhiko waiting at his bedroom door.

"What do you two want?" he growled.

"We want to see how Misaki is doing." Kaoruko answered matter-of-factly.

"You'll hear later, now go away."

"No." Kaoruko folded her arms across her chest and made it painfully obvious that she was not about to move anytime soon.

Usagi was about to say something when Nowaki opened the door and the three of them entered. "Honestly Akihiko, this place is a mess." Haruhiko muttered as he tried to avoid stepping on his half-brother's toys, "I've seen slobs on the train that are tidier than this."

Usagi shot him a look that told him to be quiet as Misaki was dozing in Usagi's bed. He was sleeping on his right side, facing them, and he looked so cute and peaceful, and his lips were parted slightly too. Haruhiko watched Misaki sleep and Kaoruko shoved him to get him to stop staring, "Don't be a pervert!" she whispered accusingly while trying to hide her blush as she thought about how much of Misaki she had seen, _"I've seen more of his body than Haruhiko! Hehe! If only Dear Brother's mouth hadn't been—"_ Kaoruko's thoughts were cut off by Nowaki speaking.

Nowaki remained completely professional as he stated, "When Takahashi-kun drowned, he didn't cough up all the water in his lungs. Eventually that water caused a bacterial infection and has become pneumonia in his left lung, and he currently has a fever of 39.9 degrees." He said as he looked at the thermometer.

Usagi, in disbelief, took the thermometer from Nowaki and stared at the numbers he had yet to clear away. Usagi gaped at the numbers for a while, apparently in shock, before he suddenly sprang to life with a murderous rage in his eyes as he lunged at the younger man, but was held back by Kaoruko and Haruhiko, "Dear Brother!" Kaoruko cried as he struggled against their grasps.

"Akihiko, stop being foolish!" Haruhiko chastised.

Usagi still tried to free himself while Nowaki looked at him remorsefully, "Usami-san, I'm sorry. It's my fault that Takahashi-kun's condition is so bad, and I take full responsibility for it."

"This never would have happened if you had listened to me in the first place! And then on top of that you never even checked on him all those times I told you to!"

"No, and that was my fault. Takahashi-kun kept saying he was fine, and I was so tired that I thought he did look fine. I'm sorry, I should have done my job properly and now Takahashi-kun has to suffer because I slacked off. But I promise you that I will do whatever it takes to heal Takahashi-kun."

Usagi only grew more infuriated, and Kaoruko and Haruhiko were starting to lose their grip on the author. "Usagi-san?"

The voice of his lover halted his rage instantly and he rushed to Misaki's side, "Misaki."

"Please don't fight."

"We're not, we were just talking." Usagi bent the truth a little to assure his lover and took hold of his hand. Misaki's hands always felt so warm to Usagi, but the heat coming from them at that moment was unnaturally hot and Usagi didn't like being able to feel the heat radiating from the boy's body, "But how are you feeling?"

"I'm really tired right now, and my chest still hurts."

"I'll get some vapor rub for Takahashi-kun; it'll also help him keep coughing." Nowaki stated confidently.

"Shouldn't you be trying to stop his coughs? They're clearly hurting his throat, he sounds hoarse." Usagi pointed out, getting pissed by the younger man's light attitude.

"He needs to cough to clear his lung." Nowaki simply rebutted, "If his coughs become too disruptive and prevent him from sleeping then I can give him a small dose of cough syrup to lessen the coughs, but he needs to keep coughing."

Usagi also questioned why Misaki was only covered with a sheet and not the blankets, "Didn't his shivering episode start because he was cold?"

"He may think he's cold, but his fever is dangerously high, if it gets any higher… right now we just have to let the heat escape, when it decreases we can start keeping him warm to prevent it from rising again, but we can't let it rise anymore. We should work on reducing it, but we shouldn't force his fever to break until it's ready to do so on its own. A fever isn't an illness, it's a defense against infection, so it's not bad for him to have one, it's just bad for it to be so high; it'll break on its own when it's ready to."

Usagi accepted his answer and Nowaki left followed by Haruhiko, but Kaoruko stayed for a little bit longer, "Misaki, what can I bake that would make you feel better?"

"Sorry, Kaoruko-san, but… I'm not feeling… particularly… hungry right now." Misaki panted heavily.

"Well just think on it and tell me later, I'll make whatever it is."

"You know… Kaoruko-san, you… love baking so much, but… I've never seen… you eat any of… your own food." Misaki tried to be light about it, but he didn't like how he was always stuck eating sweets for weeks whenever Kaoruko made something for him, _"I will surely grow fat one of these days."_

"Of course not. It's much more fulfilling to watch the one I love enjoying the fruits of my labor."

"Kaoruko, go away now. Stop forcing Misaki to talk, he needs to rest."

Kaoruko gave her cousin a glare, but knew he had a point and she left the room while Nowaki entered with the vapor rub and handed it to Usagi, "It has lavender in it so it'll help him sleep." He told him before leaving and closing the door behind him.

Usagi turned on the lamp on the night stand and sat down on the bed next to Misaki. He unbuttoned the boy's shirt to expose his chest and swiped a little bit of vapor rub on his fingers before he applied it to Misaki's chest. Once he was done, he set the jar down on the night stand, but left Misaki's shirt unbuttoned so he could breathe in the vapors. Misaki noticed that he was coughing more, but at the same time it also made it easier for him to breathe.

After putting the menthol rub up, Usagi started to stroke Misaki's hair softly, "Aren't you… tired, Usagi-san?"

"A little." He lied, he was actually completely exhausted. The drama that had unfolded during the day had drained the energy he had managed to build up within four days of almost losing enough blood to die from shock. He was feeling very weak and dizzy, but he didn't care, his own problems meant nothing to him when it came to the well-being of his Misaki, "Are you tired?"

"Yes."

"Well then, let's both take a nice afternoon nap."

"Okay." Misaki mumbled, already half asleep.

Usagi turned the lamp light off to make it easier for them to sleep. Usagi wasn't cold, so he just laid down in front of Misaki without bothering to cover himself up. He wrapped his arm around Misaki's head so he could place his cold hand on his lover's hot forehead. Misaki welcomed the icy sensation and actually moved closer towards the older man. Usagi placed his other arm over Misaki's waist to prevent putting any pressure on his chest as it would have just hurt Misaki while also making it more difficult for him to breathe.

Misaki had fallen asleep almost instantly, but Usagi stayed awake for a little longer caressing Misaki's bangs. He loved playing with the boy's thick and soft hair. He eventually couldn't resist burying his face in Misaki's hair and he drank in his lover's sweet, warm scent until he finally drifted off and joined him in sleep.


	11. Chapter 11

Usagi tried nursing Misaki back to health, but it was difficult. Misaki never seemed to be hungry, and what little amounts he did force down almost immediately came back up. Some ginger would have undoubtedly helped to settle his stomach, but as his fever still hadn't gone down, Nowaki was hesitant to allow him to have any ginger as it would have increased his body temperature. Fever reducers and luke warm baths helped to bring his temperature down temporarily, but it always spiked back to its original height. Usagi tried to keep Misaki's fever from spiking by keeping him cool either with ice packs or by fanning him, but still his fever remained high. Nowaki wished that he had the antibiotics that Misaki needed, but he wasn't sure where the nearest pharmacy was, or how far the tentacles had reached; he knew that he would still have to go back out there soon though as Misaki wasn't getting better and would eventually get worse.

After three days of suffering, Usagi discovered that Misaki did grow worse when he was suddenly woken up by the sound of Misaki struggling to breathe. He called for Nowaki who took out a ventilator and set it up before handing the tube to Usagi, "He's still making those sounds so he can breathe it's just difficult. Try to calm him down and get him to breathe as deeply as possible."

Usagi placed the tube in Misaki's mouth, "Misaki, calm down and try to breathe through your mouth."

Misaki forced himself to stop struggling so hard and he tried to breathe through his mouth. At first he couldn't notice a difference, but gradually his breath started to come back to him. He began to cough and Usagi took the tube out and covered his lover's mouth with a tissue so he could cough up whatever was in his lungs. After he stopped coughing, Usagi placed the tube back in Misaki's mouth, and Nowaki took the tissue to check what Misaki had coughed up. He had noticed some blood and he took that moment to listen to Misaki's lungs. "The pneumonia has spread to his right lung." Nowaki announced.

Nowaki checked the back of Misaki's throat and massaged the outer part of his throat with his fingertips, "His throat is raw, and it's starting to bleed from coughing." He took out a little bottle and had Misaki open his mouth before he sprayed the back of the boy's throat with a numbing antiseptic liquid to prevent his throat from becoming infected.

Once Misaki was done with the ventilator, Nowaki listened to his lungs once more and took his temperature, "His fever has been 38.9 degrees since last night, so I think it's down for good this time. We can start keeping him warm to trick his body into lowering his fever even more, and he can eat ginger now; the ginger will stop him from getting sick after he eats so he'll get stronger, but he really needs the antibiotics. If his lungs get any worse I'll have to drain the fluid with a chest tube, but if one thing goes wrong his lung may collapse…"

Misaki didn't seem to hear a word Nowaki said and he simply fell back against Usagi's chest and closed his tired looking eyes. Usagi could tell that the boy had fallen asleep and he began to softly stroke his young lover's hair, "Where is it?"

"The medicine? Any pharmacy would have a bottle behind the counter."

"There's a pharmacy a few kilometers away… do you think the tentacles have already reached that area?"

"They may have… the roads are clearing up though, and professor Miyagi's car is right by the entrance so driving to the pharmacy instead would be ideal."

"If I go, will you come with me to find it?"

"Usami-san, you're really not in the best shape to go outside. You've completely neglected your own health to take care of Takahashi-kun—"

"I would do anything for Misaki. If he needs the medicine then that's all that matters. I know how to drive and I know how to drive fast, but I don't know what kind of medicine he needs, and I know we can only make this trip once. If I mess up then… will you go with me, Kusama-san?" Usagi was practically begging the younger man.

"I'll go." Nowaki agreed, "I promised I'd do whatever it took to make Takahashi-kun well again and I always keep my promises. We should leave immediately."

Usagi lowered Misaki down on the bed, but the sudden movement caused him to stir, "Usagi…"

"Kusama-san and I are going to get your medicine."

Misaki's glazed over eyes suddenly widened and clarity washed over them as he grabbed his lover's sleeve in a feeble attempt to make him stay.

"I'll be fine; Misaki, but you need the medicine." Misaki only tightened his grip on the older man's sleeve in response.

"Misaki, do you honestly trust me so little? I told you I'd be fine, don't you believe me?"

Misaki's grip on Usagi's sleeve gradually loosened and his hand slowly slid back down. "I really will be fine, Misaki. I'll only be gone for a few hours. Why don't you take a nap, it'll help the time go by quicker."

"Okay." He mumbled.

Usagi covered him up with the blanket, "Is that too warm?"

"No, it… feels good."

"All right." Usagi caressed Misaki's hair, and the boy allowed himself to be lulled to sleep.

When Usagi and Nowaki announced their decision to leave to get Misaki's medicine, Fuyuhiko was very much against the idea of his son going outside, "The helicopter is arriving this afternoon, are you sure you'll make it back in time?" he questioned.

"We will." Usagi insisted, "We have to get Misaki's medicine before we leave; there aren't any pharmacies in that area so this is our last chance; I'm not leaving without it."

Fuyuhiko didn't argue with his son. He knew how ill Misaki was and how Usagi wouldn't let himself be talked out of going. Usagi and Nowaki left while Haruhiko and Mizuki stood by the building doors armed with Haruhiko's axe and Mizuki borrowed Miyagi's katana. Miyagi himself was unable to guard the doors as he was suffering from a migraine, which seemed to happen frequently since his concussion. Fuyuhiko sat down on the couch to wait for them, Hiroki went into the T.V. room to stay with his ailing friend, and Shinobu started vacuuming upstairs to pass the time.

As he was vacuuming, he noticed one of the doors were open and he peered inside to see Kaoruko scooping goldfish out of the tank and placing them into a large plastic bag filled with water. "What are you doing?" he asked as he turned off the vacuum.

"We'll be leaving soon; I can't just leave Misaki's pets to starve to death. Would you mind bagging the eels for me?"

Shinobu decided to help her and placed the eels in a bag before helping her with the rest of the goldfish. "To think Dear Brother makes Misaki take care of them all by himself."

"You always speak so highly of Takahashi-kun." Shinobu commented. He personally couldn't stand Misaki. He thought Misaki was annoyingly meek and he was envious of the older boy's cooking abilities while at the same time astounded that Misaki was as dimwitted as an ass when it came to the simplest of academic questions. _"Such a waste. If you're good at cooking you should be able to handle basic literature! How do you read a cook book?!"_ Shinobu growled in his mind.

"Of course, I do love him after all."

"Even though he's taken?"

"Yes. I wouldn't want to do anything to break up Misaki and Dear Brother because Dear Brother makes Misaki happy. I just wish that I could have been the one to do that. But who knows, maybe I will be."

"Do you honestly believe that?"

"I have to."

Shinobu fell silent; he remembered that feeling, to love someone who had been taken by a family member. After Miyagi married his big sister, Risako, he tried to give up on Miyagi and moved to Australia to study abroad. In the end things had worked out for him after Miyagi got a divorce and Shinobu came back to Japan to badger him into falling in love with him. However, he knew there was no hope for Kaoruko. He saw how those two men looked at each other and he knew there was no hope for the poor girl, _"True love only happens once. She doesn't stand a chance."_ Shinobu stayed quiet as he helped Kaoruko carry the bags downstairs before he returned to vacuuming.

The minutes ticked by like hours as they waited for the two men to come back. Hiroki tried to read a book to pass the time, but found distracting himself impossible given the amount of anxiety he was feeling for his lover as well as his childhood friend. Miyagi tried to help take his mind off of it, but found out that his migraine made it too difficult to hold a conversation and he left to lie down in a dark corner.

Hiroki flipped through the T.V. channels until the T.V. shut off and the apartment became slightly darker, _"Great, it found our power source."_ Hiroki grumbled before putting the remote down.

He stood up, making sure to stay off of his injured leg, and hopped out to the balcony to take a look at the street. There were barely any cars on the street, but there were many tentacles. _"They don't seem to be big enough to reach the roof top. They're all of such varying sizes, it's hard to tell…"_ he thought as he looked over and his eyes widened upon seeing a few tentacles that did look like they would be able to reach the roof top, and they were approaching fast.

He suddenly felt ill and he hopped back inside of the apartment and closed and locked the door behind him. He sat back down on the couch and propped up his broken leg before leaning back, _"Nowaki wouldn't like the fact that I've been moving around on my own. Nowaki… hurry back already, jerk."_

Kaoruko suddenly stepped in front of him and he looked up at her, "What do you want?"

"Have you seen Uncle Fuyuhiko?"

"No."

"I can't imagine where he could be."

"Maybe he's in the bathroom, or maybe he went to lie down for a little bit." Hiroki suggested.

Kaoruko didn't say anything in response. She'd almost believe that he had gone into Usagi's room, but quickly shook her head at the possibility of it. Even when Usagi was gone, a dark aura remained at the room's door as if warning everyone not to enter. Little did she know that she was actually right. At that moment, Fuyuhiko was in Usagi's room watching over Misaki.

When Usagi and Nowaki left, Fuyuhiko didn't think it was right to leave a sick person by themselves and he went upstairs to check on Misaki. Fuyuhiko decided he would watch over his son's lover until Usagi and Nowaki returned. Fuyuhiko knew Usagi would have hated the fact that he was in his room, but Fuyuhiko was genuinely concerned for Misaki. He often questioned the boy's relationship with his son, but Fuyuhiko didn't hate Misaki, he was actually quite fond of him; life just hadn't been kind enough to him to allow him to believe in their relationship.

His own marriage had been one of convenience; the woman that he was in love with was labeled as a mistress after his marriage. Together they had Haruhiko while two years later he had Akihiko with his wife. He barely saw his mistress or Haruhiko until she died. She had never been a particularly healthy woman and after so much stress trying to support their son on her own, it became too much and she became ill and died. After her death, he took Haruhiko in and he became part of the Usami family, but Fuyuhiko always wondered if his eldest son blamed him for the death of his mother.

Haruhiko's mother was the woman he truly loved, and yet reality kept them apart and caused him to be forced into marriage with a woman he didn't love and who cheated on him frequently after the birth of their son. He didn't care though, that woman meant nothing to him; he lost the only woman he actually loved. He wasn't sure if Haruhiko blamed him for his mother's death, but he blamed himself and the experience left him jaded towards love. He didn't think that he was jaded though; he just believed he was being realistic.

" _I think I'm a coward. I agreed to that marriage just to further myself… there were other reasons, but that doesn't excuse what I did. I can't regret what I did whole heartedly though, because being with that woman did give me Akihiko… Akihiko… I know he'd never do what I did, and that worries me. He grew up in luxury, he lacks any life skills, and he couldn't survive as a commoner. In a way, I like the fact that Takahashi-kun is with him. Takahashi-kun takes care of him and he looks so happy when they're together, but I know it can't last. They have no future together, just like we didn't. I don't want to see how much pain he will be in when that happens, it worries me."_

Misaki stirred a little in his sleep and mumbled, "Usagi-san." Before his lips turned up in a smile.

Fuyuhiko felt remorseful for the two, _"Life is cruel. They'll learn."_

He suddenly heard a lot of commotion coming from outside, just underneath them. He rushed outside to the balcony and saw that one of the tentacles had entered the building. He hurried back inside and pushed the door so it would slam shut before he ran downstairs to alert the others. What he hadn't realized was that the balcony door hadn't closed when he slammed it, but actually slid back a little bit making a wide opening available.

When Fuyuhiko alerted the others to what he had seen, they were about to rush downstairs when Usagi, Nowaki, Mizuki, and Haruhiko entered the door. "Are you okay?" Fuyuhiko asked.

"Yes, we're fine; I can't say the same about professor Miyagi's car though." Nowaki answered for Usagi as the man was clearly not interested in answering his father, his only thought was getting the medicine to Misaki.

It's insured, don't worry about it." Miyagi shrugged, he imagined his car wasn't the only casualty among automobiles that day, as long as it was useful then it wasn't wasted in his mind.

"USAGI-SAN!" Misaki's loud scream caused everyone to freeze before Usagi raced up the stairs and entered his room; the door to which was still opened from Fuyuhiko's hasty leave.

Upon entering, Usagi nearly screamed when he saw Misaki being held up in the air by a tentacle that was wrapped around his waist. The tentacle began dragging him outside to the balcony and Usagi chased after it. He caught up to it and wrapped his arms around Misaki before the tentacle could drag him past the edge of the balcony. Misaki returned Usagi's embrace and Usagi tried pulling Misaki out of the tentacle's grasp, but the tentacle continued to drag Misaki closer to the edge of the balcony.

Haruhiko and Kaoruko joined Usagi's side and tried to pry the tentacle away from Misaki, but the tentacle just pulled Misaki over the edge of the balcony and Usagi watched as a slightly smaller tentacle wrapped itself around Misaki's ankle and slid underneath his pants. Usagi pulled back with all his strength and suddenly Mizuki appeared and cut through the tentacle with Miyagi's katana. The tentacle writhed on the street while the other piece fell away from Misaki and crashed into the smaller tentacle causing it to break away from Misaki as well.

The three pulled Misaki back up on the balcony and Usagi hugged Misaki to him as he fell to the ground, completely worn out. Misaki, for his part, maintained his tight grip around his lover. Usagi noticed Misaki's rapid breathing and tried to calm him down, "Misaki." His lover remained completely unaware of him as his wide eyes darted in all directions and he started shaking violently.

Nowaki hurried over to him and noted Misaki's pale, cold skin, rapid pulse, and enlarged pupils; he instantly realized what was wrong, "Usami-san, he's in shock, I need to stabilize him."

Usagi tried getting Misaki to let go of him, but the boy's iron grip remained and Usagi had to pry Misaki's hands open in order to free himself. Misaki cried out in protest, but Nowaki was able to take him from Usagi. "Professor Miyagi, can you bring Hiro-san to Takahashi-kun's room, I'll need his help.

Miyagi rushed to retrieve Hiroki while Usagi whispered, "I saw a tentacle crawl up his leg…"

"I'll examine him after he's stable." Nowaki assured before he left Usagi.

Usagi watched Nowaki leave with Misaki before he forced himself to stand; it was hard as his own legs felt so shaky from the adrenaline rush he received after seeing his lover in danger, but he retained his dignified appearance, "Who? Who opened the door?" he demanded.

"I did." Fuyuhiko answered honestly, "I heard the commotion, and I thought I had closed it, but the force must have knocked it back—"

"Get out!" Usagi growled, "Get out now!"

"The helicopter will be here in ten minutes, will you at least give us time to gather our belongings?" Fuyuhiko asked.

"Ten minutes and then that's it. Then you can all leave, but the helicopter is of no use to me without Misaki, and now he can't be moved." Usagi's hatred of his father showed clearly on his face and cut through Fuyuhiko deeper than any knife.

"Dear Brother, you will still join us at the summer house when Misaki is well enough, won't you?" Kaoruko asked anxiously.

Usagi knew that Misaki would be safest at the summer house, but without the helicopter it would be difficult to get there. The streets were clear, but there were tentacles everywhere. However, as the tentacles had knocked out the power it was impossible for Misaki to stay in the apartment. The nights were too cold and the cold air would be too much for his lungs and would kill him. "We'll leave tomorrow." Usagi decided and Kaoruko accepted his answer.

The helicopter had arrived ten minutes later and the Usami clan checked to see if anyone else would accompany them. However, Nowaki couldn't leave Misaki, Hiroki wouldn't leave without Nowaki, Miyagi didn't want to leave Hiroki behind, and Shinobu couldn't be budged without Miyagi; so the four were forced to leave the six men behind. Kaoruko and Haruhiko didn't want to leave without Misaki, but knew it would be too difficult to pile eight people into a car so they forced themselves to leave.

Kaoruko handed the bags of fish to Mizuki to carry, which he did, but he made a point to protest about it, and she carried the eels outside. Haruhiko followed behind them, and Fuyuhiko tried to apologize to his son, but he was abruptly dismissed and he left the apartment.

After they left, Usagi sat down against the wall beside Misaki's bedroom door and waited anxiously. Nowaki would exit every once in a while to grab something before swiftly returning to the room; never stopping to update Usagi. As he waited, his phone suddenly rang. He checked the caller I.D. and discovered that it was Aikawa. She had called because she wasn't able to get through to them by their land line and wanted to make sure that they were okay. Usagi explained their situation to her, including Misaki's condition. Aikawa fell silent after that, unsure of what to say, "Sensei…"

Usagi decided to just hang up, he didn't want to hear her pity. He was about to turn off his phone when another call came through, that time from Takahiro. Usagi's breath caught in his throat. He had barely managed to prevent his voice from breaking when he was talking to Aikawa about Misaki. He wasn't sure how he could tell Takahiro about his little brother.

He took a deep breath and decided to stick to the original plan he and Misaki created of lying to Takahiro about his condition. Usagi answered and Takahiro responded instantly, "Usagi! Where's Misaki? I tried calling him, but his phone went straight to voicemail!"

"Sorry about that Takahiro. Misaki's phone died and we currently have no power so we can't charge our phones. Mine is also about to die." He lied; his phone still had half of its battery left.

"Where is Misaki? Is he all right? He sounded pretty sick on the phone the last time I spoke to him."

"He's all right; he still has his cold, but I got him some medicine so he'll get better soon." Usagi made sure his voice sounded light and reassuring. It had been Misaki's idea to tell his brother that he only had a cold, and Usagi needed to keep up the act for his lover.

"That's good! Thank you, Usagi. You always take such good care of Misaki."

"Of course."

"Can I speak to him?"

"He's resting right now. Would you like me to wake him up for you?"

"I'd hate to disturb him, but I'm really worried about him…" Takahiro hesitated before deciding, "would you please wake him up for me, Usagi?"

"Yes, I'll do that for you. Hold on one moment, I'll try to hurry up the stairs; I'm not sure how much longer my phone will last." He hated lying to Takahiro, but the truth would have only hurt him and made him feel helpless.

While on the phone with Takahiro, he emailed Aikawa to tell her that he would be turning his phone off to conserve the battery and after sending the email, he disconnected the call and turned his phone off so Takahiro would believe that his phone died as well. _"I'm so sorry, Takahiro."_ He sighed as he slid the phone back inside his pocket.

When night fell, Hiroki hopped out of the room so Usagi could replace him, "He's stable now so Nowaki is going to start the examination to see if he was penetrated, he said he wants you in there for it."

Usagi stood and Hiroki yelled down the stairs, "Professor Miyagi! Come get me!"

"Kamijo, you're so forceful." He teased.

"Shut up! This is humiliating enough as it is!" he hissed as the older man picked up his co-worker and carried him downstairs in his arms.

"Please don't yell so loudly, I do still have a migraine." He pointed out.

Usagi entered the room and closed the door behind him. Nowaki's LED lamp kept the room nice and bright which allowed Usagi to get a good look at his lover. Misaki looked even worse than before, and Usagi hated the glazed over look in the boy's usually vibrant eyes. "How bad is it?" he asked.

"His fever spiked again, his throat is very raw and may become infected, and the shock weakened him further. We'll have to wait to see how bad it gets from here."

"Did you change his clothes?" Usagi asked noting that Misaki's shirt was different.

"He got sick on his shirt so I had to clean him up and I changed his shirt, but just the shirt."

"Are you going to start the examination?"

"Yes." Nowaki answered as he put on a pair of latex gloves, "I wanted you in here to distract him and also to undress him for the examination. When I tried to remove his shirt, he got scared and I had to give him a small dose of a sedative to take the edge off, but I don't want to traumatize him further. However he's familiar with you…" Nowaki let his voice trail off to prevent himself from stating the obvious.

Usagi accepted his answer, but hated the idea of Nowaki seeing so much of Misaki; it made him feel very uncomfortable. Usagi removed Misaki's pants and his underwear very slowly to see how the boy would react, and was surprised when his lover didn't respond at all. "Is that normal?" Usagi questioned.

"It's because of the sedative I gave him, I didn't give him much; if he doesn't feel there's any cause for alarm, he won't respond. When I start the examination though, I want you to hover over him to block me from his view; I don't want to scare him again as I examine him."

Usagi positioned himself so that he was leaning over Misaki with his arm supporting his weight. "Misaki." Usagi wanted to see if Misaki would respond to his voice and was happy to see Misaki's dull eyes suddenly spark as they looked up at him.

"Misaki, Aikawa called. I told her the power went out, she was worried when she couldn't get through to our landline, but I told her that we're fine." It was a lie, but Misaki didn't need to know that he told her, he just needed to be distracted.

Usagi could feel Nowaki push Misaki's legs forward and felt them being pressed firmly against his back. Misaki suddenly cried out a little bit and Usagi quickly said, "Takahiro called too. I told him that I got your medicine and that you'd be fine now."

Misaki blinked at him and he seemed pleased that Usagi hadn't told his brother the truth. Usagi felt Misaki's legs slide away from him and he looked back to see Nowaki removing his gloves. "Well?"

"There was no penetration. He wasn't raped."

Usagi felt sick with relief and he turned back to tell Misaki, "It didn't rape you."

An equal amount of relief washed over Misaki. Usagi hugged his lover lightly, so as to allow him to breathe, while Nowaki continued to talk, "I already gave him the medicine, but make sure to wake him up in a few hours for the next dose. I don't have a small dosage cup, but I marked a syringe so just use that."

Nowaki then left the room and closed the door behind him as he walked out. Usagi redressed Misaki in some fresh clothes before he returned to hugging him. He was so relieved and so completely exhausted at that point that he began to cry, and he didn't want Misaki to know he was crying. Misaki, for his part, held on to the older man tightly and feebly pulled him closer to him. It wasn't long, however, until Misaki fell asleep like that. Usagi decided that without power, it was too cold upstairs for Misaki, so he carefully wrapped him up in his sheet and brought him downstairs so they could huddle up with the others for maximum warmth.

Nowaki saw them coming and offered up his futon for them to sleep on. Usagi accepted his gesture and laid Misaki down gently before Nowaki handed him a blanket. "When will it be safe for Misaki to travel?" Usagi asked.

"Ideally when he's fully recovered, but we won't be able to do that though. The cold air will make it harder for him to breathe, but we should leave by tomorrow morning just before dawn."

"What about Misaki?"

"If we keep the car warm, he should be fine."

"Are you sure about that?"

"I wouldn't do something to endanger Takahashi-kun unless I had no other choice. In this case we don't. There's a risk, but I honestly believe he will be fine now that we have his medicine." Nowaki told him.

Usagi felt uneasy, but he knew that the younger man was right; there was simply no other way. He would just have to trust that Misaki would be strong enough to survive.


	12. Chapter 12

In the early hours of the morning, the five men prepared to leave all the while making sure not to wake up Misaki. Miyagi and Nowaki loaded up the trunk of Usagi's car while Usagi placed Suzuki-san in the backseat before going back to get Misaki. He laid Misaki down against the teddy bear to give his lover something soft and warm to cuddle against.

Nowaki was carrying Hiroki in his arms and the older man suddenly asked, "Who's driving?"

As Miyagi and Usagi were the only ones who had cars they were also the only ones who knew how to drive; however, Usagi was more used to driving fast than Miyagi was and everyone thought it would be best for Usagi to drive. Usagi wanted to be in the backseat so he could stay close to Misaki, but realized that they were all better off with him driving and he reluctantly took the driver's seat. Miyagi got in the passenger seat while Nowaki sat in the middle of the backseat with Hiroki on his lap, and Shinobu squeezed inside the little room left in the backseat.

Once everyone was settled, Usagi sped outside and drove faster than he ever had before, which felt oddly exhilarating to the man. The tentacles were an obstacle, but Usagi's speed proved to be too much for them and they began falling far behind the car. When the tentacles vanished, the traffic appeared and forced them to stop. Usagi turned off the car to conserve the gas and battery as they waited for the traffic to move.

Nowaki took the opportunity to check on Misaki, who had been awake for some time; unable to fall back asleep due to all the excitement around him. Misaki's fever had gone back down to 38.9 degrees, but he wasn't coughing or sweating anymore. Nowaki realized that the lack of sweat was undoubtedly from dehydration and he hesitantly decided to take the quicker route of rehydrating the boy by hooking him up to an I.V.

"Takahashi-kun, which hand do you want me to stick the needle in?" Nowaki asked.

"What?" Usagi didn't like hearing the question Nowaki had asked his lover and he quickly turned around, "What does that mean?"

"I'm giving him an I.V. One bag will be enough to rehydrate him; it'll be quicker this way, and we ran out of bottled water. We only have two cans of juice left."

"An I.V. seems severe, don't you think?"

"We don't have any water though so this is the only way to hydrate him for now; we'll get more water on the way."

Usagi relented, but he didn't want Misaki to have to go through any more pain and suffering as the boy had already been through so much. "Takahashi-kun?" Nowaki reminded him of his question.

"Th-the left one." He tentatively decided.

Nowaki took Misaki's left hand and warmed it up to better expose the boy's veins. When they were dark enough to the man's liking, he swabbed the area with an alcohol pad and then had Hiroki hold on to Misaki's left hand while Nowaki readied the I.V. "All right, now I'm just going to put this part on your hand. Hiro-san, get ready to tape it down when I tell you to, okay?"

"Yeah." Hiroki nodded as he took the piece of tape from Nowaki.

"Okay Takahashi-kun, now just look out the window and try to distract yourself, it'll be over in a second."

Misaki turned his head away, but the anxiety wouldn't allow him to distract himself and he just squeezed his eyes shut instead. He suddenly felt a hand on his face and his lover's familiar lips connected with his. Misaki opened his eyes in surprise, but gratefully accepted the older man's soft kiss. Usagi waited for some time before he broke the kiss, "There, it's done."

Misaki looked down at his left hand and saw that the needle had been painlessly inserted and was connected to the I.V. bag. Misaki blushed before mumbling, "Thank you."

Usagi patted the boy's head and smiled at him before turning back around so he could turn the car on and drive the short distance the traffic had opened. Nowaki had Hiroki hold the I.V. bag up while Nowaki set up the ventilator again for Misaki. When the boy was finished with the I.V. and the ventilator, Nowaki gently removed the needle and put a cotton ball on the hole before wrapping his hand a couple of times, firmly, but not tightly. After that he checked Misaki again, and while his fever hadn't gone down, his lungs were starting to improve. So long as they kept up, he knew Misaki would recover soon.

By the time the sun was starting to set, they still hadn't moved very far, but everyone was feeling worn out. Nowaki thought it would be best to allow everyone to nap for a few hours. Shinobu went out to the trunk and retrieved everyone's blankets and passed them around before opening up the passenger door and sitting down on Miyagi's lap and slamming the door shut, "I'm sleeping on top of you, Old Man." He muttered, "Now good night."

"Yes, yes." Miyagi sighed but wrapped his arms around his young lover anyway, "Good night." He smiled as he lowered the seat so they could stretch out more.

Usagi wrapped his blanket over his shoulders before saying, "Misaki, come up here, you'll sleep with me."

Misaki was about to protest, but he felt really tired, and he was looking forward to feeling Usagi's warm body temperature. He climbed over to the driver's seat and Usagi lowered the seat back and moved over until his back was against the door to allow room for the boy to lie down, as he had to sleep on his side to prevent any pressure on his back and chest which would have made it difficult to breathe. Usagi opened his arms, ready to welcome his lover into his warm embrace and Misaki slid in between the older man's arms without any further coaxing. Usagi wrapped his arms, along with the blanket, over his lover to cover him completely and Misaki moved closer to allow Usagi's body heat to warm him. He felt oddly cold, but the heat that was radiating from his lover was warming him up. "How are you feeling now?" Usagi asked.

"I feel a little better after the I.V." Misaki's voice was quiet and slightly muffled, but Usagi could hear him.

"Good, I'm glad." Usagi was relieved to hear that Misaki was getting better.

Usagi gave the boy a forehead kiss and started to stroke Misaki's soft, thick hair which swiftly lulled him to sleep. Usagi stayed awake for a second longer; just long enough to hear Misaki's much less harsher breathing, before he allowed himself to fall asleep as well.

With the two boys no longer in the backseat, Hiroki was able to lie down, but his upper half remained on Nowaki's lap. Hiroki tried to hide his dark blush and focus on sleeping while Nowaki tenderly petted his lover's hair as he stayed up to watch the traffic, but the traffic failed to budge and a moment later, he fell asleep too.


	13. Chapter 13

Nowaki woke up to the sounds of constant crashing coming from behind him. He looked back and didn't see anything, but he knew what that sound was; the tentacles were coming. He carefully leaned forward so as not to crush his lover, who was still sleeping on his lap, and shook Usagi awake. Usagi did not appreciate his sleep being interrupted, but upon waking up he too heard the sound of the tentacles approaching and he slowly sat up, making sure not to disturb Misaki as he did so.

"Usami-san, how far away are we from your family's summer house?"

"Very. We're not even half way there."

"We have to leave, we can't stay here anymore it's too dangerous. The tentacles will probably be here by morning."

"The traffic hasn't budged." Usagi pointed out grimly.

"Can your car handle rough terrain? We can cut through the fields instead." Nowaki suggested.

"It can handle it; I'll make sure it does." Usagi assured.

Nowaki began to wake everyone else up but Usagi decided against waking Misaki and simply picked him up and placed him in the back against Suzuki-san before he started the car. Shinobu hurried to the back as well and once he was seated, Usagi drove off. Instead of driving away from the tentacles though, Usagi was staying in the area the tentacles were sure to be soon.

"Usami-san, where are we going?" Nowaki questioned.

"A convenience store; Misaki is not getting another I.V."

Nowaki couldn't argue with his logic, they needed more food and certainly more water. After only driving for a short period, Usagi was forced to stop the car due to the wall of traffic that blocked them from the convenience store. "Let's walk from here." Nowaki decided, "Takatsuki-kun should come as well."

"Wait, a minute! The tentacles are still approaching though, so shouldn't we make a plan in case we get separated?" Hiroki suddenly interrupted.

"Do you really think that'll happen?" Usagi asked.

"Look behind you, you idiot!" Hiroki hissed.

Sure enough they could all see the faint outline of the tentacles thrashing around and throwing cars in the light of the dawn. "If they're over there already, they'll be here too and very soon; may I remind you that we haven't even moved one kilometer away from them?" Hiroki pointed out.

"I know!" Usagi suddenly realized, "There's an inn not more than 15 kilometers away from the summer house. If necessary we can meet up there."

"Write down the directions in case we're separated then." Hiroki urged.

The five men searched the car frantically for a piece of paper and a pen while Misaki remained in a dead sleep. _"Aw, he must be tired."_ Usagi thought as he allowed himself to stop and watch his lover sleeping peacefully, he looked so cute; Usagi had to fight the compulsion to touch him. He didn't want to risk waking the boy when he had had so many fitful nights before.

"I found a piece of paper!" Shinobu announced triumphantly and a little too loudly which caused Misaki to stir.

Usagi soothingly petted his lover's head which caused him to fall back to sleep, "I'll thank you not to wake the ill while they're resting." Usagi growled.

"Here's a pen." Miyagi kept his voice low, not liking the daggers that Usagi was throwing at Shinobu.

Usagi took the pen and paper and quickly wrote down directions on getting to the inn, "Will you be able to tell which street you're driving beside?" Usagi asked Miyagi, knowing that he would be driving the car if Usagi could not.

"Yeah, that won't be hard." Miyagi assured.

"If you see the tentacles, don't wait for us, just drive." Nowaki told him.

"You two have nothing to worry about; I'll keep your lovers safe." Miyagi promised.

The four men exited the car, but Miyagi only did so in order to take the driver's seat; he didn't need to get the keys from Usagi as he had left them in the ignition. Usagi casted one more glance at Misaki's sleeping form before forcing himself away from the car. The three had to slide across the hoods of the cars in order to reach the convenience store, which was surprisingly still in business.

While Usagi and Shinobu piled food and drinks into their basket, Nowaki decided to talk to the cashier, "How are you doing here?"

"Not bad, business has been great lately. I also hear the Americans have finally decided to get off their lazy asses. Their navy will be in our waters soon, they're going to torpedo the shit out of the creature. Safer than an aerial attack I guess."

"The tentacles may be coming to this store soon though."

"Maybe, but maybe not, and I'd hate to lose business. If I closed the shop then I'd just have looters breaking in and taking stuff and I'd have to pay for the damages, it stays civil this way."

Nowaki decided to leave the man and he hurried over to his companions instead and put back most of the junk they had selected in favor of the healthier options. "We need more candied ginger too, Misaki ran out last night and he can't keep anything down without it." Usagi told them.

They searched the store to find more candied ginger and after that they decided they had enough. Usagi paid the cashier and the three rushed outside. Once they made it back to the field, to their horror, the car was gone and several large tentacles were in its place.

"MISAKI!"

"HIRO-SAN!"

"MIYAGI!"

They all cried out for their lovers in unison, but there was no one there to answer their calls. Shinobu felt ill and started to hyperventilate while Usagi's legs gave out underneath him and he covered his mouth as he fought against the sobs that threatened his throat. Nowaki battled the wave of nausea that hit him and forced himself to breathe, he was all they had left and he needed to be strong for them, even though he was suffering just as much as they were.

"Come on, they're not here anymore, and I don't see any debris which means they must have gotten away. We all said we'd meet up at the inn and that's exactly what we're going to do." He tried to rally their spirits.

"The inn is 60 kilometers away." Usagi snarled through gritted teeth as he struggled against the suffocating pain in his chest.

Shinobu's hyperventilating finally reached its peak and he hunched over as he got sick. Nowaki handed the boy a bottle of water and Shinobu rinsed his mouth out while Nowaki rubbed small circles on his back.

"Regardless of distance they'll be there and they'll be waiting; we can't disappoint them." Nowaki still tried to help the other two regain their confidence, "I understand that the shock is devastating, but they need us and we have to be strong for them."

That seemed to be enough for the two, and Usagi stood up gracefully despite his numb legs, and Shinobu managed to find his breath and he straightened himself out. "All right, now Usami-san, as you've been there before, lead the way." Nowaki's energy appeared to be reaching them and the three ran onwards and into the cover of the forest. Once they were perfectly shielded with the trees, they slowed to a brisk walk instead to conserve their energy. When the sun started to fall, they had to stop as the nights were too cold for them to continue on.

Nowaki had Usagi and Shinobu sit down to eat and rest while he worked on building a fire; he liked the distraction. After the fire was lit, the three huddled close together and as near to the fire as they dared. "We'll have to take turns watching the fire to make sure it doesn't go out." Nowaki told them.

"I'll take the first watch, Kusama-san." Usagi mumbled as he sipped on the bottle of vitamin water Shinobu had handed him, but the man couldn't force himself to eat a morsel; he felt so ill that he was certain he'd get sick if he even tried a bite.

"Very well then. Make sure to wake me up when you get tired and then I'll wake Takatsuki-kun when it's his turn." Nowaki instructed.

Shinobu was exhausted and fell asleep quickly, but Nowaki noticed the despondent look in Usagi's eyes, "Usami-san, I know you're worried about Takahashi-kun, but he'll be fine. He's still in the car and Hiro-san is with him too so he can help him."

Usagi nodded his head, but his eyes remained dull. Nowaki wasn't sure how to comfort the man as he couldn't even comfort himself; all he could do was urge them on with the small hope that their lovers were still alive and were waiting for them at the inn. While the two slept, Usagi remained awake; blankly staring into the darkness of the night, _"Misaki… Misaki… Misaki… Misaki…"_ he repeated his lover's name in his mind all night long.


	14. Chapter 14

After escaping the tentacles, Miyagi continued to drive until he was certain that he had left the tentacles far behind. Hiroki was still in the back with Misaki who at the moment was feebly attempting to open the door, but Hiroki held him back with great ease, "Pull yourself together, you idiot! You're in no condition to go out there!"

"But Usagi-san is still out there!" Misaki's hoarse, strained voice was barely audible.

"I didn't see them back there, which means that they'll see the tentacles and notice we're not around and leave." Hiroki pointed out.

His logic seemed to fall on deaf ears, as the clearly delirious Misaki still tried to squirm away from the older man, "I have to get to Usagi-san!" he gasped before he was seized with a violent coughing fit which halted his struggles.

"Dammit! Stop struggling, you're going to make yourself worse!" Hiroki barked.

Misaki's coughs grew more intense until the boy suddenly shot up and he pushed on the button to roll the window down and made it just in time to get sick outside of the car. "Ah, shit! Where's Nowaki's bag?" Hiroki growled as he tried to reach the other side of the backseat without moving his broken leg.

"I'll get it, Kamijo. You just help him." Miyagi said as he turned around and grabbed the bag.

Hiroki decided to try comforting Misaki by rubbing small circles on his back and he handed him a can of juice, as they didn't have any water, for the boy to rinse his mouth out with. "What am I looking for?" Miyagi asked.

"His medicine; it should be in a prescription bottle."

"Most of these are prescription bottles." Miyagi responded dryly.

Hiroki was about to make a vicious remark when Misaki, having used up the last of his energy getting sick, fell back against Hiroki and started to shiver. Hiroki rolled up the car window and then placed his hand on the boy's forehead and cursed at how hot he felt. "Professor Miyagi, have you found the bottle yet?" he asked as he reached down to remove the cotton ball and tape that was still on Misaki's hand from the I.V.

"Maybe if I had a little help from my _assistant_ I would have found it by now." Miyagi muttered.

Hiroki rolled his eyes and place Misaki back against Suzuki-san so he could help the older man look for the boy's medicine. Misaki lethargically leaned against Suzuki-san and nuzzled the bear, it was so soft and it smelled like Usagi which greatly comforted him.

"All right, I'm pretty sure this is the one. Takahashi-kun, is this it?" Hiroki questioned.

Misaki had surprisingly fallen asleep and Hiroki, greatly irritated and on edge after being separated from Nowaki, angrily shook the boy awake, "Hey! Pay attention, we're doing this for you!" he snapped, "And if you get worse then Akihiko will be pissed off at us for it! We don't have Nowaki with us so there's not much we can do if—"

"Kamijo, enough. Yelling at him isn't going to help; he's obviously very confused and delirious, be more gentle and you'll get better results from him." He pointed out before addressing Misaki, "Takahashi-kun."

Misaki didn't have the will to lift his head and simply looked up at the older man with glazed over, half opened eyes. "Takahashi-kun, is this your medicine? I can't tell." Miyagi held out the bottle to the boy.

Misaki shakily raised his hand and, after a few attempts, managed to grab the bottle. He couldn't tell just by looking at it, and he fumbled with the cap trying to open it until Hiroki snatched the bottle from him and opened it before handing it back to him. Misaki sniffed the bitter liquid and nodded his head, confirming that it was indeed his medicine.

"Good, now where's the syringe?" Hiroki wondered and both men rummaged through the bag to find it, while Misaki shivered and tried to warm himself with Suzuki-san.

When Hiroki found the syringe, he filled it up to the mark that Nowaki had left and then squirted the mixture inside of Misaki's mouth. Misaki, who had fallen asleep again, was surprised by the sudden movement and the bitterness of the medicine caught him off guard. He rolled down the window again and almost didn't get his head out in time to get sick again.

"Kamijo, you need to work on your bedside manner." Miyagi sighed as he rubbed Misaki's back comfortingly.

"Dammit! Where's the ginger?" Hiroki hissed.

"We ran out of candied ginger." Miyagi reminded him.

"Well the kid can't keep anything down without it, apparently." Hiroki handed Misaki the can of juice once more to rinse his mouth out with.

Misaki finished off the juice and limply fell back inside; he was breathing heavily and shaking badly; his throat was also burning after getting sick twice. He was extremely frustrated with being sick, and he was so scared for Usagi that he just wanted to cry.

Hiroki felt a stab of sympathy pierce him and he decided to try being more gentle with the boy, "I bet your throat is hurting you now, isn't it?" he asked as he rolled the window back up for Misaki.

Misaki nodded and Hiroki grabbed the throat spray from Nowaki's bag, "Come on; open your mouth." Hiroki pulled Misaki against him so he could tilt his head back and have easy access to his throat. Having Misaki put most of his weight on his bad leg made Hiroki grit his teeth to prevent himself from uttering a painful cry.

Misaki forced his mouth to open, which was difficult to do with his shivering, but he managed. He hated the spray for making his throat feel numb and causing him to struggle every time he swallowed, yet at the same time he appreciated it for relieving his pain.

Seeing him wince at Misaki's weight, after Hiroki sprayed the boy's throat, Miyagi grabbed Misaki and placed him on the passenger seat. "Sit up here for now, Takahashi-kun. Let's allow Kamijo to stretch out." He suggested and he retrieved Suzuki-san for Misaki as well.

Misaki hugged the bear to him and tried to stop shivering. The sheet he was wrapped in originally was still loosely wrapped around him from the waist down, but that left his upper half uncovered. Miyagi lowered Misaki's seat back so he could lie down and rest before he covered him back up with the sheet and then he buckled him in.

"There, now let's start for the inn. We said we'd meet up there so we'll just get a room and wait for them to come." Miyagi decided.

"I agree, we need to get out of here…" Hiroki's voice tailed off before he could utter his desire to go back for the others.

"We can't go back, Kamijo. I want to, but we both know they're not there, and they could be anywhere. If they're in the woods we can't very well drive a car through all those trees."

"No, you're right, and I never thought otherwise." Hiroki lied.

"For right now our priority should be for Takahashi-kun's well-being; he is still one of our students until spring, maybe even longer since no student will have met their requirements by the beginning of spring." Miyagi joked. He wanted to keep the atmosphere light for the others.

Hiroki secretly appreciated his co-worker's effort, but Misaki was asleep again and hadn't heard a word. "Is that normal?" Miyagi asked.

"Nowaki said that even with him being as sick as he is, he should still be able to stay awake. Falling asleep like that is not a good sign, but there's nothing we can do about it without Nowaki. We can't even give him another dose of medicine until a few hours go by."

"Should we wake him up?"

"He'll just fall asleep again, may as well let him rest." Hiroki sighed.

Miyagi started the car and Hiroki took out Usagi's written directions for the inn so he could guide Miyagi to their destination. The two weren't sure how long it would take for the others to catch up, but decided to pay for their room for up to three days. Miyagi chose to bring their bags into the room first and set up their futons so Misaki and Hiroki would have something to lie down on. He retrieved Misaki first before going back for Hiroki and Suzuki-san lastly. Miyagi's head started to throb painfully and he sat down on his futon as he tried to breathe through the pain.

"Professor Miyagi?" Hiroki grew concerned for the man and his very recent concussion.

"I'm all right." He assured.

"Let's turn off the lights." Hiroki suggested.

He stood up with some difficulty and hopped over to the light switch, but Miyagi turned on the lamp light which filled the room with a dim light so they could all still see. As Hiroki sat back down, Misaki started to stir and it became obvious to the two that the boy was having a nightmare, but they hadn't expected him to suddenly shoot up into a sitting position and scream, "USAGI-SAN!"

"Takahashi-kun, calm down; you're fine." Hiroki hissed.

Misaki was panting heavily and he looked around wildly before he started to calm down and he grabbed Suzuki-san to comfort himself. "We should make the most of this situation." Miyagi started a conversation, "Let's order something to eat soon."

"Takahashi-kun still needs ginger." Hiroki pointed out.

"I'll go get some candied ginger for Takahashi-kun. Kamijo, why don't you help Takahashi-kun take a bath, I'm sure a bath would help him feel better."

"Fine, are you sure you're okay to move around though?"

"I'll be fine so long as I take my time. If I start to feel dizzy I'll just sit down for a moment." Miyagi assured him.

Hiroki accepted the older man's reasoning and when Miyagi left, Hiroki slid over to Misaki, "Takahashi-kun, sit up. I need to take your temperature to figure out how hot the bath can be."

Misaki forced himself up with his shaky arms and Hiroki took the thermometer out of Nowaki's bag. After hearing the thermometer go off he checked the temperature, "39.4 degrees…" Hiroki let his voice trail off, _"Shit, it's getting high again. It's not 39.5 degrees yet, so it can be a hot bath, but it's so close that I also think he should have a luke warm bath… then again, he is still shivering so maybe a hot bath would be better…"_ Hiroki was indecisive about what to do as Misaki's fever could get worse if he made the wrong choice.

" _I need to stop him from shivering, that's the priority. I'll have him take a hot bath."_ Hiroki finally decided.

He left Misaki so he could get the bathroom ready before returning for the boy, "Come on, Takahashi-kun. I can't carry you, you'll have to stand."

Misaki had some trouble standing as his legs felt dead underneath him. Hiroki supported Misaki as best as he could, but for the most part, Misaki had to use what little strength he had left. Hiroki escorted Misaki to the bathroom, and stayed in there as Misaki undressed and washed himself off before his bath, but Hiroki kept his back to Misaki the entire time; too uncomfortable to turn around and see too much of the boy who was not only his childhood friend's lover, but also one of his students. Hiroki only stayed in the bathroom to make sure Misaki didn't fall and hurt himself.

Misaki enjoyed his bath for a while until he felt a little better and then he got out of the tub. Hiroki handed Misaki a towel, and after the boy dried himself off he grabbed the change of clothes Hiroki had gotten for him and he redressed himself. He picked up his worn clothes and then the two exited that bathroom. The steam from the bath had made Misaki cough more and his throat start to bleed again and the spray had also worn off, causing his coughing to feel increasingly painful.

"Lay back down and I'll spray you again." Hiroki told him.

Misaki did as he instructed and got into his futon and settled himself in a temporary position on his back. Lying on his back hurt and made it difficult for him to breathe, but he could bear it for a moment. Hiroki sprayed the back of Misaki's throat and then he quickly turned over on his side; he started to cough aggressively and his breaths sounded wheezy.

Hiroki rubbed Misaki's back hoping it would help him breathe. Besides the coughing, Misaki did seem better after his bath, he seemed more alert and he stopped shivering. Misaki's coughs eventually grew weaker and Hiroki removed his hand. "I'm going to take a bath now; you should take the time to rest." He told Misaki as he stood to retrieve some clothes before hopping into the bathroom.

When he came out, Misaki was sleeping and Miyagi had finally returned and was deciding what to order. "When did you get back?"

"About ten minutes ago."

"Where did you go? You were gone for a long time."

"I had to sit down a few times, but I made it. Now help me pick out something good."

Hiroki sat down next to him and the two started to study it, but they heard Misaki stirring again from another nightmare. Hiroki slid over to him and shook him awake, "Takahashi-kun, wake up."

Misaki shot up and gasped as he opened his eyes. He panted for a moment and looked around wildly before deciding that he was safe and he fell back onto his futon, but stayed awake. "We're ordering food right now, what do you want?" Hiroki asked him.

"I'm not hungry." Misaki mumbled. He was more worn out than anything else and he felt so very lethargic without Usagi by his side.

"You have to eat or you'll get worse; you're already not doing good as it is." Hiroki scolded himself for sounding more irritated than concerned for the boy.

Misaki knew Hiroki was right, he had gotten sick twice and he hadn't eaten anything for a long time. He needed to eat, but he felt too ill to eat. "Takahashi-kun, I got some more candied ginger for you, eat some and we'll order something light for you to eat." Miyagi said as he passed the bag over to Misaki.

Misaki nibbled on the candied ginger while Miyagi and Hiroki ordered their food. The ginger did help Misaki's nausea, but he still couldn't get himself to eat much. After eating, Hiroki gave Misaki another dose of medicine and Misaki quickly took a drink of water to rinse the bitter taste from his mouth. The medicine made Misaki feel tired and he laid down to go back to sleep. Hiroki pulled the blanket up to cover Misaki's shoulders and keep him warm to prevent his fever from rising any higher since it had started to go down once more.

Miyagi decided to take a bath after eating and Hiroki settled down to go to sleep, but stayed awake regardless; his mind was reeling after his separation from Nowaki, and he felt too anxious to sleep. Miyagi exiting the bathroom brought Hiroki back to the present and Miyagi climbed into his futon; he didn't look good, but Hiroki wasn't sure if he should point it out. Instead, he grabbed the bottle of pain pills from Nowaki's bag and took one with a bottle of water and then he handed one of the pills to Miyagi, "Here, take it."

"But they're for your leg."

"My leg will be fine, if your head is hurting you it's stupid to make yourself suffer."

Miyagi decided to take the pill rather than argue with him and after a moment of silence, he decided to break the quiet, "How's the kid?"

"He's better now, he's not shaking anymore, his fever went down slightly, and he seems more energetic, but still I can tell his separation from Akihiko has impacted his health."

"Well at least we're staying at an inn for a few days. Resting in a room and eating proper food will help him a lot more than traveling around in a car."

"Why do you care about him so much?" Hiroki accidently wondered out loud, "Ah, I mean, you don't really know him that well and all."

"Don't you care about him? I care because he's the youngest of us and our student so that makes him our responsibility."

"I didn't mean to seem cold, you know. Well from a perspective, I don't think much of the kid. He's a good kid, but he's also a little stupid and careless. However I can tell that he and Akihiko love each other very much. I was worried about Akihiko for a while. I thought he'd be stuck pinning after someone who was never going to love him in that way. He wasted ten years of his life doing that, but he found someone who can actually love him back and I'm just glad that he's happy too."

"Awww! You do have a sweet and caring side, Kamijo!" Miyagi teased.

"Shut up!" Hiroki spat before he threw his pillow at Miyagi because he didn't have anything hard and heavy within reach.

Miyagi caught the pillow easily and taunted the younger man, "A pillow fight, Kamijo? Aren't we a little old for that?"

"You're so annoying! Has anyone ever told you that?"

Misaki started to stir in his sleep and after looking at each other uncomfortably, Miyagi quickly decided to reach out his hand and stroke the boy's hair to lull him back to sleep. Miyagi was slightly uncomfortable with the contact as Misaki was his student, but also because he could picture the look on his own lover's face if he saw what he was doing. When Misaki became still once more Miyagi took his hand away from him, "Damn, Kamijo, have some respect for the ill." He smirked.

Hiroki was about to make a biting remark, but glanced uneasily at Misaki and decided against it, "Just give me back my pillow." He growled lowly through gritted teeth.

Miyagi tossed Hiroki's pillow back to him and he turned his back on the older man and muttered, "Good night." Before he plopped down on the futon.

"Good night." Miyagi echoed as he turned off the lamp light. He laid down, but he couldn't fall asleep, he was too anxious about Shinobu.

Shinobu liked to act vicious, but Miyagi knew that underneath that rough exterior and damn near permanent scowl, the boy was in fact very sensitive and a bit of a cry baby. Shinobu excelled at academics with the greatest of ease, but as Miyagi had pointed out to him, he was completely useless in a survival situation which meant that he was vulnerable if left alone.

Miyagi looked over at where Misaki was sleeping. Misaki was a year older than Shinobu, but the two were exact opposites. Shinobu was quick to anger whereas Misaki was much more mild mannered, and Misaki could cook, but Shinobu still struggled. One thing Shinobu was better at than Misaki though was academics. Miyagi recalled how Misaki's grades were usually average at best, and he supposed that when he had received better grades it was undoubtedly due to Usagi's tutoring.

" _Those two could never get along, they're complete opposites."_ He smiled a little at the thought of Shinobu trying to tutor Misaki and flying into a rage the moment he got an answer wrong.

" _I think I helped to keep the mood light for them. Takahashi-kun was much harder to distract, but that was probably because he's so sick right now. I know that I distracted Kamijo though. I have to use my God given talent of irritating others with my humor in order to keep the mood light. So far I think it's working, but I'll have to try harder with Takahashi-kun, we need to get his fever to stay down. I wonder how Shinobu is doing. Kusama-san is with him, so that makes me feel a little bit better about our separation. But still, my headaches keep getting worse and worse. I'd never admit this in real life because it's way too embarrassing, even for me, but Shinobu being with me when I'm like that makes me feel like I'll be okay. I wonder if that was how Sensei felt when she was dying. Did my presence help her feel brave? If this turns out to be more than just a concussion… I really want Shinobu to stay by my side until the end."_ Miyagi found himself thinking as he drifted off to sleep.


	15. Chapter 15

For three days the three men walked towards the inn, their movements delayed by the cold weather and Usagi's worsening state. Since the separation he hadn't ate or slept, he continued to stay up all night and he would leave as soon as it was light enough to walk, leaving the other two behind. Shinobu wasn't much different. Shinobu unlike Usagi, did eat and sleep, but like Usagi, Shinobu hadn't spoken a word since his separation from Miyagi, and a nervous habit seemed to have formed, where whenever they would stop for a quick break, Shinobu would hug his knees to him and place his mouth on his knee caps as he rocked back in forth in complete silence.

Nowaki tried keeping them optimistic by trying to talk to them, but the two were lifeless. Nowaki being a patient man by nature, couldn't bring himself to be frustrated with them as he inwardly felt the same way, but still he refused to give in to the hopelessness of their situation, he had to be there for his companions. As they were walking, Usagi looked up and noticed the sun going down on the third day of trekking, and his rage broke the silence that had encased them, "We're moving too slow."

"It's because it's so cold out. We have to take frequent breaks to warm ourselves or we'll freeze to death." Nowaki explained.

"Let's keep going." Shinobu suddenly spoke. The two men looked back at the boy who was shivering vigorously, but still sounded so fiery, "I'm fine with it, let's just keep going, if we walk through the night too, we can make it there sooner!"

"No, we have to stop for the night." Nowaki shook his head.

"If you're too scared to go I'll go by myself! You can't stop me!" Shinobu snapped.

"You'll die, and that won't help professor Miyagi. We are all worried about them, but we have to keep our heads in these situations. If we give in to the panic then we've all lost. Please, just be patient and think of your lover. He'll be all right, you'll see." Nowaki tried assuring the boy.

Shinobu looked furious, but he surprised the men by suddenly breaking down into tears and he fell to his knees as he wailed. Nowaki went over to comfort him while Usagi simply sat down. His anger had subsided and he returned to the void of darkness that had kept him up at night. The heart breaking loneliness that had claimed him ever since his separation from Misaki was killing off any warmth he had left. _"Misaki… Misaki… Misaki…"_ He still found himself repeating the boy's name in his mind as if he was afraid he would forget about him if he didn't.

While Nowaki tried to calm Shinobu, he failed to spare the time to make a fire. The night air was making Usagi feel cold and he rubbed his arms and legs for warmth. As he was rubbing his legs, he felt something large and hard in his pocket. His eyes widened as he quickly reached into his pocket and pulled out his cellphone which, as he recalled, still had half of its battery left after he turned it off. "My cellphone! We can call the inn and make sure they're there!" Usagi quickly gained the attention of the others who hurried over to his side.

He looked up the number for the inn and dialed it before he put the phone on speaker so they'd all be able to hear the person on the other end. "Miyagi is the only one who would have been able to walk up to the front desk so ask the receptionist to patch you through to his room!" Shinobu suggested. The three then fell deathly silent as they all held their breaths and waited for the receptionist to answer their call.

Misaki woke up screaming Usagi's name; he had another nightmare about the tentacles raping him. He didn't have nightmares when he was sleeping next to Usagi, but without him, Misaki continued to wake up crying out for the older man.

"Damn it, Takahashi-kun! Do you have to wake up screaming every time?" Hiroki hissed as he grabbed his chest to slow down his breathing and pounding heart; Misaki's scream having nearly made him scream as well.

"Kamijo, knock it off. The kid went through some serious trauma; do you honestly think he shouldn't be experiencing nightmares?" Miyagi groaned as he tried to ignore the dull ache in his head.

"S-sorry." Misaki mumbled once he had caught his breath.

"It's fine, Takahashi-kun. Don't let Kamijo's grumpiness get to you; he probably just didn't get much sleep last night. Maybe you should take a nap, Kamijo." Miyagi teased.

"Shut up! That's none of your business! And it's only four o' clock!"

Misaki felt a little uncomfortable about having to share a room with his college professors, but he was grateful for Miyagi's presence. The older man was definitely their beacon of light through all the turmoil. However, his constant teasing of Hiroki lead to much arguing and only made Misaki feel weary. Misaki felt that changing his clothes and washing his face would give the two men enough time to bicker. As he rummaged through his bag, a book suddenly fell out. Misaki picked it up and instantly realized it was the newest, "Da Man" volume he hadn't finished reading.

Since he had been asleep the morning they left the apartment, he knew only Usagi could have packed his bag for him and that he must have seen that Misaki hadn't finished it and decided to take it with them. The kind gesture from his missing lover caused a lump to form in Misaki's throat, "Usagi-san…"

Misaki recovered himself to hide his emotions from his still quarreling teachers and gathered a change of clothes in his arms before he stood up with some effort and he wobbled slightly as he walked into the bathroom. He then reached over to the bath tub and turned the water on so the two men wouldn't be able to hear him cry, "Usagi-san!" he sobbed his lover's name as he allowed himself to cry freely.

"What the hell is he doing in there?" Hiroki huffed.

"Maybe he felt like taking a bath. Actually, I do too. When he gets out I call the next one!" the older man grinned broadly.

Hiroki was about to respond when the phone abruptly rang and Miyagi quickly answered it so the ringing wouldn't worsen his already throbbing head, "Hello, this is Miyagi Yoh."

"Miyagi!"

Hearing Shinobu's voice on the other end of the phone made Miyagi's heart stop, "Shinobu!"

"'Shinobu'? Nowaki! Nowaki, are you there?"

"I'm here, Hiro-san!" Nowaki cried out.

"Misaki? Where's Misaki?" Usagi demanded.

"He's gone—"

"WHAT?!"

"— to the bathroom! Let a person finish their sentence, Akihiko!" Hiroki snapped as he stood up and hopped over to the bathroom and opened the door, not even bothering to knock first.

Misaki had turned off the water when he finished crying and had just redressed himself when Hiroki rushed in and retrieved him, "Here he is!" he announced as he dragged Misaki over to Miyagi who handed over the phone to the very confused boy.

"Misaki?"

"Usagi-san!" Misaki recognized his lover's voice immediately.

"Misaki!"

"Usagi-san!" Misaki began to cry again, "Usagi-san, I found the book! Thank you so much! You always think about me!" Misaki wailed.

While the four men talked excitedly to each other simultaneously, the two boys' very noisy weeping prevented anyone from hearing what they attempted to communicate. Misaki soon started to cough violently though; which stopped his crying, and Miyagi took the opportunity to try to calm his lover down, "Shinobu-chin, please calm down. Where are you at? I'll come get you."

"I really wouldn't suggest that you drive, you're still recovering from your concussion." Nowaki pointed out.

"I was fine enough to drive here, besides I'm not going to let Shinobu spend another night outside in the cold."

"Nowaki, I'll go with him." Hiroki offered.

"No, someone has to stay with Misaki." Usagi shot the idea down.

"We could bring him with us." Miyagi suggested.

"No, Misaki needs rest, not to be stuffed in an overly cramped car." Usagi protested.

"Usagi-san, I'm really feeling much better now." Misaki stopped his coughing by drinking some water so he could reassure to his lover, "I'll be fine, I bet you guys won't even be gone for an hour."

"Are you sure, Misaki?"

"Mm-hm. I'm not lying." Misaki promised.

Usagi hesitated before reluctantly agreeing, "All right then."

"We'll leave right now, so where are you guys?" Miyagi asked.

"Hold on, we'll have to get back to the road; we'll call you once we get there." Nowaki said before he hung up to conserve the battery of Usagi's phone and the three waited anxiously to hear back from their lovers.


	16. Chapter 16

After getting the name of the road, Miyagi carried Hiroki to the car and Misaki watched them leave. He had planned to nap while they were gone, but he quickly realized that he was too anxious to actually do so. He tossed and turned for a while until he decided to get a drink to take his mind off of it. He finished the water from the bottle, but he was still thirsty. He looked around for another bottle and couldn't find one. _"There must be a vending machine somewhere around here."_ Misaki thought as he counted the change in his bag's pocket, _"I'll just get something to drink and then come back really quickly."_ He decided.

He felt slightly light headed, but he was able to walk properly and he left the room without trouble. He had only searched for a few minutes before he found the vending machine. He swiftly inserted the money and decided to select a bottle of green tea. As he was retrieving it, he heard a familiar voice calling his name, "Misaki-kun?"

He quickly turned around before asking, "Aikawa-san?"

"Oh, Misaki-kun! Thank God, you're okay!" she cried out as she hurried over to him, "Oh, but you look horrible. How are you feeling? Sensei said you were very sick."

"Yeah, but I'm doing better now." Misaki reassured her.

"Oh, I'm so glad! I was really worried about you! If you're here than that must mean that Sensei is too, right?"

"Ah, no, not yet, but he will be. We were separated, but he just called us and they went to get him and the others."

"Oh, good!"

"Ah, Takahashi-kun?" another familiar voice cut into their conversation.

"Ijuuin-sensei?" Misaki was surprised to see him, _"I should have realized he'd be here if Aikawa-san was."_ He wanted to face palm himself for not getting away sooner.

"Are you feeling all right, Takahashi-kun? You don't look so good."

"Ah, it's just a cold; I'll be fine." He smiled nervously but was swiftly stunned when the older man suddenly touched foreheads with him.

"Hmm. Your fever feels pretty high, are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Misaki tried to stay casual, but he was starting to feel uncomfortable.

"Where's Usami-sensei? Shouldn't he have come out here to get you more tea?"

"Oh, Sensei isn't here yet." Aikawa answered for the boy.

"Takahashi-kun, are you staying here by yourself?" Ijuuin asked astonished.

"W-well just for right now."

"That won't do; a sick person should not be left by themselves."

"Huh?" Misaki wasn't sure if he understood where the mangaka was going with his statement.

"Come back to my room, Takahashi-kun. Surely it won't be too bad to wait for Usami-sensei in my company."

"Ah, well, thank you very much for the offer, Ijuuin-sensei, but I really don't mind being alone for the moment. It's easier to rest when it's so quiet." Misaki laughed apprehensively.

"All right, well then at least allow us to escort you back to your room. If you collapsed on your way there, I don't think Usami-sensei would forgive us."

"Ah, you're too kind, Ijuuin-sensei." Misaki fidgeted uncomfortably, unsure of how to get away.

"Of course I am; I truly treasure Takahashi-kun after all." He stated as he smiled at Misaki.

Misaki reluctantly lead them back to his room and the two entered after him, much to his surprise. "Oh, I see Sensei brought Suzuki-san with him. And yet I'm sure he couldn't be bothered to take his laptop." Aikawa grumbled the last part bitterly.

Ijuuin looked around the room and his eyes caught Misaki's "Da Man" manga, "Ah, I see you bought my latest volume, Takahashi-kun." He commented as he picked it up.

"Y-yeah, Usa-Usami-san, he packed it for me."

"Oh, is that so?" Ijuuin kept his smile, but he was taken aback by his rival's kind gesture. _"I can do better, though."_ He thought before saying, "I know; how about I draw you a special comic strip? Just as a sneak peek into the plot of the story I'm working on right now?"

Misaki's eyes widened and lit up instantly, "I-I don't want to trouble you though, Ijuuin-sensei."

"It's absolutely no trouble at all; when a person means so much to me, I'd do anything for them."

Misaki wondered what he meant by that and an odd combination of elatedness at the sneak peek and uncomfortibility at the man's words washed over him. Once Ijuuin was finished drawing the comic strip on the inside back cover of the book, he gave it to Misaki who eagerly took it, "What do you think of this as a teaser to my newest story?"

Misaki glanced at it, but closed the book before he saw too much of the comic, "Ah, I have to wait to read it until I've finished the book. The teaser might spoil the ending, but thank you so much, Ijuuin-sensei! I haven't finished the book yet, but it's already my favorite! Your manga continues to top itself each and every time, but the older story lines never diminish in greatness! You've never disappointed me as a fan!" Misaki couldn't stop his honest thoughts from spilling out.

Ijuuin beamed at Misaki's whole hearted praise, "Takahashi-kun is straightforward as always." He smiled once more, but there seemed to be something a little sad about his smile.

"Well, as Misaki-kun made it back okay, shall we go, Ijuuin-sensei?"

"Ah, yes. Takahashi-kun, I hope you feel better soon."

"I will; Usa-Usami-san got medicine for me, so I'll be fine now."

"That's good. I'll see you later, Misaki-kun!" Aikawa waved before excusing herself.

"I'm really glad to see you're all right, Takahashi-kun." Ijuuin said before he suddenly gave Misaki a forehead kiss, "Give my regards to Usami-sensei when he arrives." With that the older man walked out of the room and closed the door behind him.

Misaki was stunned by the kiss, _"Three times. That man has kissed me three times. It all happened so fast, and I just froze. I wish I could have pushed him away. Usagi-san would have been so upset with me. How many times will I have to turn that man down?"_ Misaki wondered sadly, _"I don't want to hurt anyone, but the only person I feel that way towards is Usagi-san."_

He sat down on the futon, and decided that Usagi wouldn't be happy to see him up while he was still so ill, so he lay back down and covered himself up. Misaki was too worn out at that point to continue reading the manga so he simply hugged Suzuki-san to him and buried his face in the bear as he drifted off to sleep.


	17. Chapter 17

Misaki woke up to the sound of the door opening and saw Usagi rush inside, "Misaki!"

"Usagi—" Misaki wasn't able to finish his lover's name as the older man's lips suddenly connected with his own.

Usagi kissed Misaki frantically as if the boy's life depended on it. "Usa-Usagi-san! I can't… breathe." Misaki choked out.

Usagi retrieved his tongue from his young lover's mouth and moved down to kiss and suck on the boy's neck instead. "Usagi-san, the others are here; this isn't appropriate!"

"Then they can leave the room, otherwise they're going to get an eyeful." Usagi simply shrugged, never once halting his advances and he started lifting Misaki's shirt up with one hand while the other slid downward sending a pleasure filled chill down Misaki's spine; seeing the opportunity, Usagi then said the words that always made Misaki submit to his advances, "Misaki, I love you."

Misaki relaxed in Usagi's hands almost instantly and Usagi was about to start getting even more physical with the boy until Nowaki quickly cut in, "Usami-san, I have to advise against going too far. Takahashi-kun I still weak and ill; let him recover first."

Usagi froze and growled low in his throat before he stopped sucking on Misaki's neck and he slowly slid his hand away from the boy's waist while also pulling Misaki's shirt back down. Misaki sat up and Usagi decided to at least hug his young lover to him instead. Misaki let Usagi embrace him and felt so warm and content in the older man's arms. "Are you okay, Misaki?"

"I'm fine." He answered.

"Are you eating all right? You look thin."

"I've been eating." He assured him.

"How much have you eaten? When was the last time you ate? When did you last take your medicine? How long was the nap you just took?—"

"Usagi-san!" Misaki cut his lover off, "I'm fine; you should be more worried about yourself!"

"But I already told you that as long as Misaki is okay, I will be okay."

"Well I'm fine." Misaki mumbled as he blushed and turned his head away from his lover.

"Usami-san, I can check Takahashi-kun for you." Nowaki offered as he set Hiroki down on the futon.

Usagi moved aside a little bit so Nowaki could examine Misaki. "His fever is 38.8 degrees now and his lungs are sounding clearer, his throat is still raw but as long as we keep spraying it, it won't get infected." Nowaki told them once he was finished.

"There Usagi-san; I'm getting better."

"I'm glad." Usagi smiled warmly at Misaki and the boy's heart accelerated, he loved it when Usagi smiled. Even after four years the older man's smile could make him feel so euphoric.

"When was the last time you took your medicine, Takahashi-kun?"

"It's been a few hours."

"Then we should give you another dose." Nowaki decided as he grabbed the bottle and started measuring out the dosage.

Usagi took the green tea bottle away from Misaki and handed him a bottle of vitamin water in its place, "Have this instead; you're sick you don't need caffeine."

Misaki didn't argue and simply took the medicine and rinsed the taste from his mouth with a drink of fruit punch vitamin water. Upon dealing with Misaki's medicine, Nowaki figured they should start moving again, "Let's get everything ready to leave now."

"Why? We should stay here until after Misaki recovers." Usagi disagreed.

"Oh, it's all right with me if we leave Usagi-san, and we should ask Aikawa-san if she wants to come with us since she's staying here too with Ijuu…" Misaki let his voice trail off once he realized he had just casually revealed the mangaka's current location.

"Misaki, how do you know they're staying here?"

"Ah, w-well, that uh… she called me."

"Misaki!" the boy flinched at being scolded by his lover for lying.

"I may have gone out to get some more tea from the vending machine, and I ran into them on accident." He mumbled.

"Damn it, Misaki! What would you have done if you collapsed out there?"

"I maybe sick but I'm not an invalid! I could have at least walked—"

"No, no excuses Misaki."

"Damn it, Usagi-san, I—" Misaki began to cough and that stopped him from arguing with his lover.

"All right that's enough of that; we're leaving now." Usagi decided as he picked up Misaki.

"W-wait, what about… Aikawa-san?" Misaki forced out in between coughs.

"Hmm…" Usagi hesitated for a moment before relenting, "Fine, I'll invite her along."

Misaki expected Usagi to put him down, but he instead threw Misaki over his shoulder and pinned him there with one hand while he picked up the phone with his other hand and asked the receptionist to patch him through to Aikawa's room.

"Hello, this is Aikawa Eri."

"It's me."

"Sensei! It's so good to hear from you! How's Misaki-kun?"

"He's fine. Listen, we're leaving for my family's summer house now, will you be joining?"

"Well, I suppose since you're here I should join you. I'm sure I've bothered Ijuuin-sensei long enough, but he's just such a gentleman!" she gushed.

Usagi narrowed his eyes and was glad Misaki couldn't hear her through the phone, "Hurry up and pack then, we're leaving now. Meet us at the front door." He told her before hanging up.

Once he ended the call with Aikawa he called Tanaka to tell him that they would be arriving at the summer house momentarily and to be ready to open the gate once they drove up; after that he carried Misaki out to the car while the others followed closely behind with their things.

Misaki tried to get Usagi to put him down as being carried in public felt extremely humiliating to the boy, "Usagi-san! Put me down and let me walk!" he hissed.

"No, you're sick so I should carry you."

"I'm not that sick any more, I can at least walk out to the car."

"No." Usagi spoke firmly, leaving no room for argument, but his voice quickly softened and he added, "Misaki, there is another reason why I don't want to put you down."

"Huh? Why?"

"Because I don't ever want to let you go; I'm afraid if I do you'll disappear again."

Misaki blushed darkly and tried to reassure his lover with humor, "Aren't you the one who said you would hunt me down if I ever tried to run away anyway?" he laughed nervously.

"That's right. No matter where you go, I will always find you."

The seriousness in his lover's tone told Misaki that Usagi had just made him promise, and somehow those words made a wonderful warmth flow through him. He fell silent, but continued to gaze at his lover with a look he only showed to Usagi as it conveyed an array of emotions he only felt towards the older man. Even the admiration Misaki had for Ijuuin was weak by comparison to how he felt towards his lover.

Shinobu and Nowaki loaded up the trunk of the car while Hiroki and Misaki sat in the back and Miyagi took his place in the passenger seat. Usagi waited for Aikawa at the front door and lead her over to the car where Nowaki took her bag from her and placed it in the trunk before closing it. Shinobu sat on Miyagi's lap and Hiroki sat on Nowaki's lap once more to make room for Aikawa. After everyone was settled, Usagi started the car and sped off towards the summer house.


	18. Chapter 18

The car drove up to the gate of the Usami summer house, and automatically opened upon their arrival. Usagi continued to drive until they reached the house and he parked his car close to the entrance. Tanaka was already outside waiting for them. Everyone exited the car excitedly, except for Misaki who was stopped by Usagi. Usagi instead picked the boy up and carried him inside, "Is my mother here?" he asked Tanaka as he walked up to him.

"No, she left upon your father's arrival."

"Good, something less to worry about. Is our room ready?"

"Yes, Akihiko-sama. Takahashi-sama, I heard about your illness, are you feeling any better?"

"Mm-hm, I'm actually feeling a lot better now, Usagi-san just wants to baby—" Usagi covered his lover's mouth and cut him off.

"Yes, he's getting healthier, but he'd probably feel better if he wasn't pushing his physical limitations so I'll be putting him to bed now."

"We'll be having dinner in a little over an hour, would you like me to inform you when it's ready?"

Usagi wanted to tell Tanaka to simply bring them some food as he wanted Misaki to stay in bed, but since Misaki was getting more energetic with each day that passed, he knew the boy would want to eat at the table instead, "Yes, please do."

While Tanaka helped the others come inside, Usagi carried Misaki upstairs to their room. After showing the others where they would be staying, Tanaka informed Fuyuhiko of their arrival and Fuyuhiko hurried to Usagi's room with Kaoruko and Haruhiko trailing behind him, but Mizuki chose to stay behind and work. Fuyuhiko didn't knock but barged right in as Usagi was covering up Misaki, "What the hell do you want?" he demanded.

Haruhiko and Kaoruko were relieved to see that Misaki was looking better and Kaoruko rushed over to him, "Misaki!"

Fuyuhiko also noticed Misaki's health returning and was equally gladdened by it, "It's good to see that you're both all right."

"We're fine, now leave." Usagi dismissed his father's concern.

"Usagi-san, don't be so cold." Misaki scolded.

"Honestly, Akihiko, you can't even be bothered to spend some time with your family?" Haruhiko narrowed his eyes at his icy younger brother.

"No, Misaki needs to rest and you're disturbing him."

"Actually, Usagi-san, I feel—" Misaki's sentence was caught off by a swift warning glare from his lover and he silenced himself.

"Dear Brother, be nice to Misaki!" Kaoruko snapped, "But he does have a point; we'll just have to wait until dinner. It should be all right then, right Dear Brother?"

Usagi growled low, but didn't argue and Kaoruko took that as a sign of victory over the older man, "See? It's settled then." Kaoruko assured and the three left the room, "Misaki, I'll make sure to save you a seat next to me, I demand that you sit there!" she told him firmly, leaving no room for argument. Usagi was about to protest for Misaki, but she closed the door before he could reply.

Misaki enjoyed his brief nap cuddling Suzuki-san, but when he woke up; he realized how messy the bear had made his hair. Usagi noticed it as well and snickered a little at the sight. "Shut up and hand me my brush!" Misaki growled as he threw the bear at his lover who caught it before the stuffed bear could hit him.

"Yes, yes." Usagi rolled his eyes and looked in Misaki's bag for his brush.

When he found it, Misaki expected Usagi to hand the brush over to him, but he surprised the boy by sitting down behind him and he began to brush his hair for him. "Usagi-san, I can brush my own hair."

"This isn't so bad once in a while, besides I like your hair Misaki." Usagi said as he planted a kiss on the top of the boy's head.

Misaki blushed and stayed quiet as he thought how oddly nice it felt to have the older man brush his hair. Usagi also felt strangely soothed by brushing Misaki's hair and loved breathing in his lover's sweet scent; however, Misaki's stomach growled, breaking the calm silence between the two and brining Usagi back to the present.

"Misaki, I'm carrying you to the table."

"Usagi-san!" Misaki was about to protest, but Usagi held the boy's face between his hands and tilted his head back to look at him.

"No, you've been getting too reckless since the medicine has started to make you feel better, but you're still ill Misaki. If you keep pushing yourself you'll get worse. I would rather have you stay in bed until your fever broke, but I knew you would refuse. I'm willing to at least let you eat at the table, but only if you'll allow me to carry you to and from the room."

"Fine." Misaki sighed in irritation. He thought Usagi was being too over protective, but he didn't want to fight with the older man moments after they had finally been reunited.

Usagi gave the boy a small smile before he stole a kiss on the lips from his young lover. Misaki slid away from Usagi and covered his lips with his hands defensively while narrowing his eyes at him, "Don't take advantage of the situation!" he snarled.

Usagi simply ruffled the boy's freshly brushed hair and smiled at him, causing Misaki to blush and look away from the older man sheepishly while Usagi continued to stare lovingly at his shy young lover while petting his head.

Usagi carried Misaki to the table once Tanaka informed them that dinner was ready. While Misaki was seated next to Kaoruko, Usagi refused to lose to his cousin and simply sat uncomfortably close to Misaki. _"Geez, Usagi-san can be so petty."_ Misaki thought to himself before an odd thought flashed in his mind, _"Usagi-san carrying me everywhere reminds me of when I sprained my ankle, but he didn't stop at just carrying me, he also drove me to and from school, and forced me to sleep with him, and even fed me… he won't try to feed me again, will he? Surely not in front of all these people! B-but it is Usagi-san we're talking about so he may try to… Brother, please tell me how to install a sense of shame in this man!"_

Sure enough, Usagi did try to feed Misaki who quickly halted the older man, "Excuse me, Great Lord Usami Akihiko-sensei, but just what in the hell do you think you're doing in front of all these people?" he hissed.

"I'm just making sure you conserve energy by eliminating unnecessary tasks for you." Usagi answered simply.

"It's not 'unnecessary', and I highly doubt feeding myself will take up too much energy." The boy growled.

Usagi sighed but let his lover feed himself. So long as Misaki ate the candied ginger his appetite returned, but out of fear that eating too much at once would make him sick Misaki kept his food portions small. Usagi wanted his lover to eat more as it was painfully obvious that the boy had lost weight during his illness, but he understood the reason why Misaki was choosing to eat so lightly. _"I'll just ask Tanaka to bring up something healthy for Misaki to snack on every so often."_ He decided.

After dinner, Usagi figured Misaki could use a nice hot bath, and firmly suggested that he assist the boy and take a bath with him while he was at it. The steam from the hot water made Misaki cough more, which was good, but to prevent his coughs from becoming too severe, Usagi cracked open the window to allow some of the steam to escape without cooling down the room.

Even though Usagi was bathing with Misaki, as the boy was still ill, he refused to fondle his lover; the gesture was not unnoticed by Misaki who decided to playfully tease the older man, "Wow, this is rare; you're not feeling me up Usagi-san."

"Of course not; not while you're sick. I'm not an animal, you know. I'm not going to pounce on you just because you're naked and sitting very close to me."

"I was expecting you to when we were showering off though."

"I said I was just going to wash your back and that's all I did. Not everything I do with you has to revolve around sex."

"Mm-hm." Misaki was not convinced.

"But I know how this past week must have been hell for you; you must be so pent up right now."

"I am not!" Misaki barked.

Usagi didn't seem to hear him and just said, "Don't worry; when you're all better I'm going to make love to you so hard."

He patted the boy's head reassuringly while Misaki blushed darkly before snapping, "Listen to what other people are saying!"

"What's that? You want to make out? Well I don't think we should, but if Misaki requests it then I must oblige." Usagi grinned.

"Usa—" Misaki was cut off when his lover pressed their lips together firmly.

Misaki tried pushing the older man off and a muffled moan escaped his lips which allowed Usagi the opportunity to slide his tongue in Misaki's mouth and deepen the kiss. Misaki's tongue, upon being caressed by his lover's tongue, reacted on instinct and their tongues entwined. At that point Misaki's protests died away and his hands slid from their defensive positions which enabled Usagi to slip his arm around Misaki's waist while his free hand rose up to the back of the boy's head to give him some support as he tilted his young lover back a little bit. Usagi pressed their bodies closer together and Misaki unconsciously wrapped his arms tightly around the older man.

The steamy bathroom was almost completely silent except for the gentle lapping of the bath water and Misaki's echoing moans, the latter of which was turning them both on. Usagi realized he had to stop before he made them mutually hard and he slowly broke off the kiss, he purposely ended the kiss progressively so he could savor it just for a moment longer, and as he leisurely retrieved his tongue from the boy's mouth he took a moment to lick Misaki's top lip before his tongue returned to his mouth.

"I think we've been in here long enough, I don't need you passing out from the steam again."

"That was one time four years ago, and it wasn't my fault it happened!" Misaki hissed to hide his embarrassment of the time he passed out in the hot spring after talking to Usagi's father.

Inwardly though, he felt that it was a good idea to leave as he was starting to feel dizzy, but he wasn't sure if that was from being ill, or the steam, or from making out with Usagi. Usagi dried Misaki off and after that; Misaki redressed himself while Usagi took the time to dry himself off. Once he finished getting dressed, he noticed that Usagi was still drying off and the older man said, "Go ahead and lay down; I'll join you in a moment."

"It's not like I need you by my side in order to sleep." Misaki mumbled, but Usagi still noticed the blush on Misaki's face.

"Yes, yes." Usagi let the boy have his way and Misaki exited the bathroom and stepped into the dimly lit bedroom.

It looked as if the bedding had been changed and was freshly made; with Suzuki-san sitting in the middle of the bed, as if eagerly awaiting Misaki's arrival, and the only source of light was from the lamp on the night stand. Misaki climbed into bed, feeling suddenly lethargic, and he hugged the soft stuffed bear to him. He was almost asleep when he suddenly felt a movement on the other side of the bed. He raised his head up and saw Usagi getting in the bed and the older man was just about to turn off the lamp when he noticed Misaki looking at him, "I'm sorry, did I wake you?"

"No, I was just dozing." Misaki assured him as he rubbed his tired eyes.

"All right, well let's go to sleep now."

Usagi turned off the lamp and settled into the bed. Suzuki-san was positioned in between them but Misaki, after having just been reunited with his lover only a few hours ago, decided that he wanted to be closer to his lover. He blushed as he mustered the courage to move the bear over to the other side of him and he inched closer to Usagi's back. Usagi, sensing Misaki's body heat, quickly turned around and wrapped his arms around his young lover, hugging him firmly but not constrictively. Misaki buried his face in Usagi's chest and Usagi started stroking the boy's hair softly.

"Usagi-san?"

"What?"

"I'm really glad you're okay. Being separated like that… I was really scared and worried about you." Misaki mumbled, and Usagi could tell Misaki was blushing without even looking at the boy's face.

"I was scared as well, Misaki. The thought of losing you is the only thing that terrifies me. I'm glad that you're okay too." Usagi gave Misaki a comforting squeeze and planted another kiss on the top of his head.

Misaki unconsciously nuzzled Usagi's chest as he got comfortable in his lover's embrace and Usagi's heart started to accelerate while something slightly lower twitched with want at Misaki's innocent caress and made him desperately wish that his lover was healthy enough for sex. Only a moment later he could feel Misaki's warm breaths on his chest become soft and deep and he realized the boy had fallen asleep. He buried his face in Misaki's hair and quickly drifted off himself.

Misaki was startled awake by a loud rumbling followed by tremors as if they were caught in the middle of a small earthquake. Misaki wondered what could have been the cause of the noise and the shaking ground before a chilling thought occurred to him, _"Have the tentacles come here too?!"_

Misaki's swift movement out of his lover's arms caused Usagi to wake up and he instantly noticed Misaki's alarm, "Misaki?"

"Usagi-san, do you hear that? Have the tentacles come here too?" Misaki began to tremble as the fuzzy fever memories of nearly being raped by the tentacles came back to him in much more vivid detail.

Usagi listened to the distant reverberating sounds and recalled what the convenience store clerk had told him about the American navy's decision to torpedo the creature. "No, it's not that." He stifled a yawn as he glanced at the clock and noted that it was barely past four in the morning, "It's nothing to worry about, Misaki. Go back to sleep; it's too early to be up."

"Are you sure?"

"Very."

"Do you know what's going on?"

"Yes, and you'll hear about it later today on the news, but for right now let's just sleep." Usagi assured the boy before he pulled his young lover down on the bed again and covered him back up.

Since Misaki was still trembling, he rubbed his hand over Misaki's arm in an attempt to warm him and stop the boy from shaking. Misaki felt reassured by his lover and soon his shivers died down. Usagi wrapped his arm around Misaki and cuddled him firmly while his other hand soothingly stroked the boy's hair. Despite the distant noise and faint quakes, Misaki did fall back to sleep and Usagi joined him.


	19. Chapter 19

In the morning everyone watched the news to hear about the American navy's successful attempt to destroy the creature, but they also reported that the city was being closed off while they began cleaning up the creature's remains; which meant that it would be a while until they could return home.

Since he was finally able to speak without sounding near death, Misaki used the phone at the summer house to call his brother. "Brother!" Misaki greeted once Takahiro answered the phone.

"Misaki!" Takahiro cried out.

"Misaki-kun!" Manami exclaimed.

"Mitaki! Mitaki!" Mahiro joined his parents upon hearing Misaki being mentioned.

"Oh, Misaki! Thank God! Are you all right?" Takahiro asked anxiously.

"Yep, I'm doing a lot better, and Usagi-san is here with me too, we're at the Usami family summer house." Misaki explained so his family didn't have to worry about them being caught up in all the chaos back in the city.

"Usagi is there too?"

"Yeah, do you want me to hand the phone over to him?"

"Yes, you go rest." Takahiro told him.

"Brother! I'm not a little kid." Misaki groaned, but he did turn the phone over to Usagi before he sat back down at the table.

"Takahiro?"

"Usagi, I'm glad you're both okay, Misaki sounds much better too. Thank you, Usagi. You always take such good care of Misaki; I don't know how to thank you for keeping him safe. We'll still be in China for a while though; they won't let anyone fly to Japan until the cleanup is finished. I'll take that time to think about how to repay you." He chuckled.

"There's no need for that, Takahiro." Usagi paused, the next words he spoke were words he'd much rather say in person, but he figured if Takahiro was stuck in China then telling him at that moment would prevent him from being able to act rashly, "I do love Misaki after all, so it's only natural that I would take care of him."

"I'm glad. I've realized how close you two have become over the past few years. It goes without saying, but I love you too, Usagi."

Usagi almost groaned at Takahiro's dense mind, _"He really is oblivious."_ Usagi sighed in his mind. "Takahiro, I feel the same." Usagi mumbled, pissed at himself for not elaborating the type of love he felt for Misaki. _"No, maybe it will be better for us to tell him together and in person."_ He decided.

"I have to go now Usagi, but make sure Misaki is resting, oh, and that he stays warm but not too warm, and make sure he's eating properly, and keep him hydrated."

"I'll take excellent care of Misaki." Usagi promised. _"For the rest of our lives."_ He added in his head.

"Thanks again, Usagi."

Usagi hung up and noticed Misaki staring at him in shock, "Did you just tell Brother that you love me?"

"Don't worry; he didn't think that I meant _that_ kind of love." Usagi assured.

"Usagi-san!" Misaki was about to admonish him, but Usagi pressed his finger to the boy's lips.

"You can scold me later, right now it's time for you to get back to bed; you've finished your breakfast so there's no reason for you to stay out here."

"Usagi-san!" Misaki protested as Usagi threw his young lover over his shoulder to carry him back to their room.

For the following week they stuck to a strict schedule. After eating, Usagi would carry him back to bed until it was time to eat again and then he would take Misaki back to the table, and every once in a while Tanaka would bring the two some healthy snacks. Usagi would also administer Misaki's medicine to him all throughout the day, and at night they always bathed together, though Usagi would somehow refrain from touching Misaki inappropriately; and then just before they would retire for the rest of the night, Nowaki would examine him to check on Misaki's progress.

After a week of that daily routine Misaki's fever broke and his lungs had cleared up, but Nowaki and Usagi thought it would be best to have Misaki rest for a little longer until they were certain that his health wouldn't relapse. After four more days, the two men decided Misaki was well enough and Usagi allowed the boy to walk to and from the table on his own and wouldn't force him back into bed after each meal, which allowed Misaki time to stretch his legs and play with Alexander and Tama. However, in the back of his mind, Misaki knew that as he was fully recovered it wouldn't take long for Usagi to jump him.

When night fell, Misaki was enjoying a relaxing bath when Usagi suddenly entered the room. "What are you doing in here?" Misaki demanded.

"I just came to wash your hair; you like when I do it, don't you?"

Misaki blushed darkly but dismissively muttered, "Whatever." He tried not to act happy at the fact that his lover had recalled that about him, _"Usagi-san can always see right through me, and he's always thinking about me. It makes me so happy, but I still can't convey myself properly to him. But Usagi-san, one day I swear I'll find a way to express just how happy and loved you always make me feel."_ He promised his lover secretly.

Misaki turned around so his back was to Usagi who, true to his word, proceeded to wash Misaki's hair. Misaki allowed himself to enjoy the feeling of Usagi's long cold fingers weaving through his hair and was slightly downcast once the older man had finished washing his hair, _"It always feels so good when Usagi-san does it…"_ Misaki reddened upon realizing what his thought could have implied when taken out of context.

"There, how's that?" Usagi asked once he finished.

"F-fine." Misaki mumbled and he expected Usagi to try something pervy, but was shocked upon realizing his lover seemed to have no intention of molesting him.

Misaki was surprised at himself for feeling disappointed by this, and he quickly stepped out of the bath to dry himself off. He almost cried out in surprise however, when Usagi's arms suddenly wrapped themselves tightly around him, "Wh-what?" Misaki asked as he stiffened.

"I was going to let you go, but that look I just saw on your face convinced me otherwise." Usagi grinned.

"What the hell? What look?" Misaki acted oblivious, but the obvious blush on his face spoke against him.

"Hm? You really don't know?" Usagi questioned, not at all convinced by the boy's lie, "I wonder if your body knows." He pondered out loud as he breathed on Misaki's damp neck sending a chill through him and causing his skin to break out in goosebumps. "It's been so long since we've been able to do it, as a boy that can't be healthy for you. I bet you're so pent up you're about to burst." He teased.

"Shut up!" Misaki hissed.

Usagi killed Misaki's protests with a well-placed kiss on the back of his neck. Misaki was taken aback by the moan that had escaped his lips just from the small peck. The sound only encouraged Usagi who flicked his tongue against that very same spot and breathed on the damp area to cause more chills to run through Misaki before he clamped his lips down on the area and started to suck.

"Ah— Usa— Usagi-san!"

"What?" he teased playfully as he slowly slid his hands up the boy's torso until his fingers reached Misaki's nipples and he began to caress them.

"St— stop, I— ah! I j-just got over be-being sick." Misaki forced out.

"You really want me to stop?" Usagi chuckled before he moved one of his hands down to the boy's member which was already semi-hard, "You're getting very hard down here just from some light teasing; I don't think your body wants me to stop." With that he began softly moving his hand along his lover's shaft teasingly which only caused more moans to escape from Misaki's lips.

"Usa— Usagi-sa— ah!" Misaki quickly realized how difficult it was becoming to form a complete sentence as he was slipping in and out of control from the erotic mixture of pleasure and sexually frustrated pain he was feeling.

"Misaki, you're already getting wet, and just from a few gentle strokes? You must be pent up." Usagi grinned slyly, "That's all right; I'll relieve you of your pain." He promised as he suddenly turned the boy around before he sank to his knees.

"Usagi-san!" Misaki cried out in surprise.

"What?" Usagi asked as he flicked his tongue up the underside of his lover's shaft, "Do you not wish for me to continue?"

Misaki blushed, but remained silent, "Very well, I guess I'll just have to satisfy my own needs until you tell me what you want me to do." He decided as he continued to gently lick Misaki's arousal, but would not actually place his young lover inside of his mouth, and he even breathed on the damp marks to torture him even further.

"Ah! Usa—ah! Usagi-sa… ah!"

"Misaki, what do you want me to do? I'll do whatever you want." Usagi purred as he began teasing the boy's head as well.

"Y-you always… ah! Just d-do wh-whatever… you w-want!" he accused.

"That's because you never respond fast enough." He smirked.

"Sh-shut up!" he snapped.

Usagi became too impatient and decided to end Misaki's torment by taking him all in his mouth. Misaki quickly found that the pleasure his lover was giving him was too much for his legs to handle and he had to grab onto the older man's shoulders for support. Usagi didn't seem to notice Misaki's sudden weight on his shoulders, and he began to hum low and constant; sending surprisingly powerful vibrations throughout Misaki's member. The quickness and loudness of his young lover's moans told him that Misaki was already about to come and Usagi prepared himself for the inevitable.

When Misaki reached his climax his legs gave out and Usagi caught on to him and gently lowered the boy to the floor, and couldn't help but tease him once more, "Well that was certainly quick."

"Sh-shut up." Misaki wanted his voice to be more assertive, but it came out sounding more like a mumble.

"Well, now that we've had a nice warm up session in here, I'd say it's time to take this to the bedroom." Usagi said enthusiastically as he grabbed his lover and threw him over his shoulder before exiting the bathroom.

Usagi tossed the still dazed Misaki on the bed and before the boy could regain his senses, Usagi pounced on top of him and claimed his young lover's lips with his own. Misaki tried pushing the older man off of him, but as Usagi deepened the kiss, he quickly found that all of his strength was ebbing away and a warm weakness was washing over him. While Usagi's tongue entwined with Misaki's, his hands freely explored his torso, savoring every inch of the boy's smooth and soft body. His thumbs eventually found their way to Misaki's nipples and he instinctively fondled them, which made Misaki's muffled moans sound even more passionate.

One of Usagi's hands slid down to grip Misaki's member and he was surprised to find that the organ was not only very hard but also weeping. Usagi began to pump him in his hand and removed his lips from Misaki's and moved down to suck on one of the boy's nipples so he could hear Misaki's pleasure filled cries.

Misaki, upon hearing how loud he was, quickly covered his mouth with his hands to soften his moans. "Misaki, let go. I want to hear your voice." Usagi tried pulling the boy's hands away from his face.

"No!" Misaki shook his head and Usagi realized the problem.

"Don't worry the walls are sound proof, you can be as loud as you want." He assured.

" _The walls may be sound proof, but the doors aren't!"_ Misaki wanted to say as he recalled eavesdropping on Usagi and Haruhiko when the two accidently met up in the summer house the last time Usagi kidnapped Misaki and brought him there. However, Usagi's pleasurable assault on the boy kept him from actually voicing his concerns.

Usagi's own member was painfully erect at the time, but he refused to be selfish; making sure Misaki felt good was his only priority, so he endured the throbbing pain for all it was worth. When Misaki's breathing began to quicken, Usagi knew Misaki was about to come again and he increased the pressure from his hand a little bit more and Misaki came long and hard once more.

Misaki fell limply back on the bed; he was exhausted. It had been so long since he had done anything remotely active and by that time he was very much worn out and tired. _"I'm so tired, but I have to stay awake for just a little longer. I know that if I said something he would stop, but I really do want to be more intimate with Usagi-san."_

While Misaki struggled to catch his breath, Usagi lifted one of Misaki's legs up and then, with his fingers heavily lubed with the boy's own cum, he rubbed his young lover's entrance with one finger until it twitched invitingly as if beckoning him to enter. He slipped his finger inside of Misaki and, due to his exhaustion, there was no resistance; not even when Usagi inserted a second finger inside of him.

Still Usagi fingered Misaki for a little bit longer just to make sure Misaki remained relaxed for him. Upon determining that Misaki was properly prepared, and deciding that he couldn't take hearing Misaki's lustful moans without being inside of him anymore, he unleashed his own arousal and in one swift movement, he thrusted himself inside of him.

Misaki moaned loudly upon being penetrated and it encouraged Usagi all the more, _"Usagi-san's is always so hot."_ Misaki thought to himself.

Misaki was slightly surprised when Usagi began lifting him up into a sitting state, but didn't mind too much as he was slowly getting accustomed to that position and it was starting to hurt less and less; however, he was not expecting Usagi to suddenly fall back on the bed while keeping Misaki in a sitting position, "Usa—Usagi-san?"

"Misaki, I want you to ride me."

"I-I don't know how to do that!" Misaki blushed darkly at the older man's request.

"That's fine." Usagi reassured him as he placed his hands on Misaki's hips, "I'll guide you, just let my hands move your hips until you get used to it."

Misaki was feeling unsure, but Usagi began to move and Misaki lost the will to question anything. The new position did feel good, but because Misaki wasn't use to the angle it was hard for him to feel comfortable, which caused him to tense up instinctively. Usagi felt the boy's insides constrict around him, and he became worried about making Misaki bleed. Even when he took the boy's virginity, he had never once made Misaki bleed; although he knew he had hurt him a few times as it was unavoidable, but he swore he'd never do anything to make his lover bleed.

"Misaki, you're too tight; relax some more."

"I c-can't. It hurts too much." He groaned.

Usagi pulled Misaki down and pressed him against his chest before he rolled over and placed Misaki on his back. The change to a more familiar position allowed Misaki to relax again and Usagi was able to move inside of his young lover painlessly.

"Misaki, I love you. I love you so much. I love you."

"Shut… up, you don't… have to keep… s-saying it." He struggled to speak in between his moans.

"I do have to keep saying it though. Because I love you and I don't want you to ever forget that."

"A-as if… I could." Misaki's face somehow became even more flushed by Usagi's sweet words.

"Do you love me?"

"You… you know… how I feel!"

"But if you don't tell me often I might forget." He teased.

"D-don't over… do it. Y-you know… I—ah!" Misaki was cut off when Usagi suddenly grasped the boy's member and started stroking him in times with his thrusts.

Usagi continued to verbally assure Misaki that he loved him while savoring Misaki's passionate cries. After a while, Misaki's breaths were becoming quicker and Usagi could feel the boy's insides tightening around him, which told him that he was about to come. _"Thank God, I'm not going to last much longer myself; I'm already at my limit now."_ Usagi thought with relief.

Usagi was surprised when Misaki suddenly wrapped his arms around him and the two clinged to each other as they climaxed together. Usagi laid on top of Misaki for a while as he caught his breath and he enjoyed listening to the sounds of the boy's heart beat and the feeling of his chest rising and falling with each breath.

When Usagi lifted his head up he noticed that Misaki had passed out, and he placed his lover into bed and covered him up before he left to take a quick shower; being too tired for a bath. Upon returning he put some pants on and slid into bed with Misaki and out of habit, he felt his lover's forehead and was relieved that Misaki felt Misaki temperature. He cuddled Misaki to him and the boy rolled over in his sleep so that he was facing Usagi.

Usagi could feel Misaki's warm and soft breaths on his bare chest; it had been so long since had heard those kind of peaceful breaths coming from him instead of breaths that were choppy, raspy, labored, short, or shallow. Misaki really was fine again.

"Misaki, I love you." Usagi whispered as he kissed the boy's forehead. He then buried his face in Misaki's hair and fell asleep.


	20. Chapter 20

As they were far away from the city in the safety of the summer house, it had been snowing heavily all winter. It was finally Christmas Eve, but as the cleanup was going on still, no one could return home; however they didn't mind. Mizuki and Kaoruko were called back by their families and Haruhiko and Fuyuhiko returned to work once the creature had been destroyed and were no more than a mere occasional presence in the summer house.

Being in one place for so long allowed not only Misaki time to heal, but also Miyagi and Hiroki. Miyagi's concussion healed after much loving care from Shinobu, most of which the older man accepted with a slight reluctance and a "please help me" look in his eyes. As Misaki and Miyagi had fully recovered, it allowed Nowaki to devote all of his time to tending to his lover who, despite being bitter about his predicament, always had a somewhat happy blush on his face.

Despite the cold weather, Misaki always went outside to take Alexander for walks in place of Tanaka regardless of Usagi's insistence that he stay inside, so the cold air wouldn't hurt his freshly healed lungs, and force Aikawa to go outside instead. Miyagi also had a desire to stretch his legs and get some fresh air, but Shinobu reminded his older lover how easily he caught colds and the man resigned himself to staying inside all winter long.

Since it was Christmas Eve, Usagi usually traveled with Misaki, but due to the boy's poor health he was not able to make any romantic plans in time. Still he was determined to spend the day with Misaki alone. Even though the summer house was big, it was very difficult for them to be alone outside of their bedroom. After breakfast, Usagi caught Misaki and invited him to go for a walk with him. Misaki, with some unrequested help from Usagi, dressed warmly for their time outside, and Usagi lead Misaki back to his secret place.

"Why are we going to your secret place, Usagi-san?"

"I've always wanted to see what this place would look like in the winter. Look." Usagi pointed out the tumbling snowflakes; they looked like little stars falling softly towards them from a gorgeous, glowing blue sky, "I'm glad this place is astounding even during winter." Usagi was relieved that he still had a special place to be alone with Misaki.

"It's really beautiful." Misaki agreed, still dazzled by the sight.

"But it can't hold a candle towards how I feel about you, Misaki."

Misaki blushed darkly and looked away, "D-don't say stuff like that." He mumbled. _"If you keep telling me sweet things like that, I think my heart really will explode from my chest."_

"But it's true." Usagi insisted, "You're the only one—"

"I know, let's make snowmen! We have all this snow; we may as well use it! Come on, Usagi-san! Let's make snowmen again!"

"You're the one who really made the snowmen last time. I just stood there and waited until it was time for me to put the heads on the top of the snowmen because you couldn't reach."

"I could now! I'm much taller now, you know."

"You've been the same height for the past four years; I think you're done growing."

"You just can't see it because you see me every day, but Brother notices!"

"Really? Because yesterday he asked me if I thought you had shrunk."

"Liar!" Misaki accused

"No, it's true he really did ask, but then we both agreed that your size hasn't changed at all."

"Shut up! You don't have to keep crushing my dreams." Misaki sniffed.

Usagi just grinned and threw his arms around the boy, "Don't worry, Misaki. I love you just the way you are; you don't have to grow any taller. Besides, you may not be gifted with height, but I know something else you have that grows very impressively when I touch you instead."

"Don't be a pervert!" Misaki hissed as he broke out of his lover's embrace before the older man could let his hands travel down to the boy's waist, "Let's make snowmen now." Misaki brought them back on track and the two began making snowballs and rolling them around in the snow.

"Misaki, how is this?" Usagi asked after he finished creating a snowball that was almost as tall as he was.

"Usagi-san, that's too big, we need to make it smaller." Misaki climbed on top of the snowball in order to break it back down, but quickly sank in the middle of the snowball.

"Misaki!" Usagi reached inside of the hole and grabbed Misaki before pulling him up and out of the snowball.

"That was cold, but I'm fine." Misaki said as he brushed the snow off of him with some help from Usagi who, upon seeing that Misaki was fine, snickered at him. "What's so funny?" Misaki demanded.

"I'm just thinking about how cute you are."

"I'm a full grown man, don't call me cute!"

"So you admit to being fully grown then?" Usagi questioned.

"N-no!" Misaki fought back.

"But you just said—"

"I know what I just said!" Misaki growled, "Let's just keep making snowballs."

Usagi shrugged and they began working together to tear his giant snowball down.

The two passed the day making snowmen in Usagi's special place, and when the sun began to set, it filled the area with a glow of gold, red, and pink making the scene even more beautiful than before as little gold, red, and pink star like snowflakes floated down on their similarly colored snowmen comrades and the two lovers who were observing the view.

Misaki took a few pictures with his cell phone, but Usagi seemed content to just stand back and stare at Misaki. "Hey, Usagi-san?"

"What?"

"Um… w-well, I'm sorry. I didn't get you a gift this year." He mumbled.

"Considering the fact that you were so sick you could have died, I think I'll overlook it this year. But in all honesty, I'll take getting to spend the day with a healthy Misaki as my gift."

"Usagi-san, that's not good enough; a gift should be something…"

"Hmm. Well then what's something that you can give me right now?"

Misaki thought for a moment, _"Something I can give Usagi-san right now?"_ Misaki's mind instantly flashed to something and his heart started to pound. He took a deep breath before saying, "U-Usagi-san… I love you."

Usagi froze at his lover's sudden confession, "What did you say?" he asked still wrapping his head around the boy's words.

"Don't give me that! This time you definitely heard it!" Misaki snarled as he tried to hide his deep blush from his lover.

"Misaki, that's foul play." Usagi grinned slyly as he wrapped his arms around his younger lover.

"What are you—" Misaki's sentence was cut off by a sudden sneeze.

"Come on; let's go back to the house." Usagi said as he picked the boy up and threw him over his shoulder, "I have a sudden urge to make you a dripping hot mess."

"Hey! Put me down! Put me down!" Misaki barked as he flailed around, but Usagi continued to carry him back to the summer house with ease.

Usagi was not at all discouraged by his lover's escape attempts, as he realized they were only for pride's sake; Usagi knew when the boy was serious and he always backed off when he was. When they entered the house, Misaki became quiet, but still struggled to free himself from Usagi's grasp until they entered their room and Usagi tossed him onto the bed.

After throwing him on the bed, he sighed inwardly upon realizing how many layers of clothes he would have to remove before he could get to a completely naked Misaki, _"Oh well, I brought this on myself, I won't let simple cloth stop me from pleasuring Misaki."_

Misaki himself thought it was a little funny, but his embarrassment overcame his humor, _"I don't think I'll ever get used to having sex with Usagi-san; he's just too calm and perfect. He never feels embarrassed, even though he claims I have some incredible influence on him. I really can't stand that about him; it pisses me off."_

Usagi suddenly kissed him and brought Misaki from his thoughts, "Misaki, thank you for making my secret place so much more special."

"What? What do you mean?"

"Because now that place will always be the place where Misaki gave me the best Christmas present ever; a much more bold love confession." Usagi explained.

Misaki's blush grew even darker somehow and Usagi kissed him once more as he finally stripped Misaki's torso bare. Misaki suddenly broke the kiss by pushing Usagi back a little bit. "What is it?"

"Uh… I just wanted you to know that I do intend on buying you a real present online, I just have to wait until we go back so it can be delivered." Misaki admitted.

Usagi covered his mouth as he laughed. "Don't make fun of me!" Misaki snapped.

"I'm not, I'm just thinking about how cute you are."

"I'm a man, men aren't cute."

"Oh, but _you_ are, Misaki. You're so adorable." Usagi purred as he kissed him again, "Misaki, I love you."

Misaki's skin grew hot as his lover softly caressed him; the sensation sent chills through him and caused him to moan unconsciously. Usagi allowed Misaki to be distracted by his tender strokes while he completed the tedious job of stripping off all of their clothes. When he finally finished, a guilty desire overtook him, _"Will Misaki hate it if I want to do something we've never tried before?"_ he wondered before saying, "Misaki, turn around."

"Huh? Why?" he asked still slightly dazed from making out with the older man.

Usagi simply turned Misaki over himself, as he was usually forced to do anyway, and Misaki made no protests, but was rather curious to see what Usagi had planned. Usagi reached into the night stand and pulled out a little plastic bottle. He squeezed some gel into his hand and rubbed his hands together and then applied the gel in between Misaki's legs. "Ah!"

"Sorry, was it cold? It'll warm up soon."

"Usagi-san, what are you doing?" Misaki asked puzzled.

"I'm going to finger you until you come."

"Huh? Wait a minute, there was a scene like that in one of your dirty books with me!" Misaki quickly realized, "You old perverted man!"

"You know that the books I write also contain my fantasies. I remember that you yourself attempted to act out a scene in there as well; though you haven't made another attempt since then." He commented sadly.

"Well excuse me for trying!" Misaki hissed, but was prevented from making any further comments when Usagi suddenly inserted two fingers inside of him.

He cried out from the sudden intrusion, but on instinct he quickly relaxed himself and realized he was starting to make very passionate moans. Usagi was tempted to fondle Misaki as well, but he really did want to make the boy come just by fingering him; so he took his time and explored Misaki's insides all the while searching for that sweet bundle of nerves. Usagi knew he had found it upon hearing a much louder cry from Misaki. Usagi pressed against it with his fingertips once more and was reassured by Misaki's loud moan of confirmation. Usagi applied just a little bit of pressure at first, to tease the boy into wanting more, but he gradually increased the pressure and Misaki's fervent moans also amplified. The urge to reach around and fondle his lover's undoubtedly very hard arousal was extremely desirous, but Usagi did not allow himself to get carried away.

Misaki's breaths became quicker as his insides tightened around Usagi's fingers and he knew the boy was about to come. He pressed down firmly on that bundle of nerves and caused Misaki to come hard. Misaki flopped down on the bed and panted to catch his breath while Usagi mentally crossed off one more item on his list of firsts with Misaki.

While Misaki was still in an inert like state, Usagi turned the boy over on his back and moved his legs apart; the sudden movement brought Misaki back, but only for a moment as Usagi swiftly thrusted himself deeply inside of his young lover. Misaki moaned loudly at the sudden penetration, but had no difficulties taking the older man all in.

As Usagi pierced him through, he ran his hands over the boy's body, savoring the smooth, tender flesh. He leaned down and kissed him passionately; entering his young lover's mouth. Their tongues entwined in a heated dance with each other, and Usagi didn't know how it was possible, but found that he was getting even harder inside of Misaki. Usagi released him from the kiss and allowed Misaki to breathe while he focused his attentions on the boy's neck instead and left little love bites to show he had been there.

He slowly worked his way down and savored how Misaki's cries grew louder the further he went. "Misaki, I love you."

Usagi repeated those words over and over until Misaki couldn't take it anymore, "Sh-shut… up! Dammit… once is… enough!" he panted in response.

"Not when it comes to you Misaki. There's no such thing as enough; because no matter how many times I say it, it'll never be enough to express how much I truly love you."

"Wh-what? That's… not possible."

"I didn't think so either, but you proved me wrong. Everything I ever thought I knew about love, you shattered those illusions and showed me what true love really is. Thank you so much for falling in love with me too Misaki. I really can't live without you."

"I don't… understand… what you're… talking about." Misaki lied.

"Yes you do." Usagi was not at all convinced and he grabbed the boy's hand and planted a kiss on it.

" _What I really wanted to say was, 'Usagi-san, I feel the same way.' But I can't tell him that; it's too embarrassing. There is one thing I think I'm ready to tell him… yeah, I think I can do it… I'll try… no, no! I have to say it! For mine and Usagi-san's sake I have to be brave; like a man. I can't keep acting squeamish forever. Spring is almost here; if I can't even tell Usagi-san this, then there's no way I can admit my feelings for Usagi-san in front of Brother. I'll do it for Usagi-san!"_ Misaki, having talked himself up, took a breath to calm himself down before saying, "Uh… Usa-Usagi-san."

"What?" he asked as he gave the boy's hand a squeeze.

"My… my third… wish on th-… the marble…" Usagi stopped and allowed the boy to speak, "I wished, 'Please let me be with Usagi-san forever.' Our third wish was the same."

Usagi froze and his eyes widened as he fully grasped what his lover had just revealed. "Misaki…" an elated smile slowly spread across Usagi's face before he suddenly sprang to life and he kissed the boy ardently while he thrusted into him harder and deeper, "I understand. I will never let you go; you are mine for the rest of your life."

Misaki clung to the older man and tears flowed from his eyes as an assortment of emotions overpowered him. When he had confessed his third wish to Usagi, he had finally chosen the path he had wanted for his future. No matter what happened next, no matter where life took him, the only thing he wanted out of life was to stay by Usagi's side.

The two climaxed long and hard together and Misaki's hold on Usagi slowly slipped away as he was too lethargic to keep his hold on him. Usagi lay on top of Misaki and held him in a tight embrace as he caught his breath. Misaki was in a daze, but he could faintly hear Usagi's voice saying, "I love you. I love you…"

Misaki found some reserved strength within himself and he wrapped his arms around his lover, returning his firm hug. Usagi gave Misaki a small squeeze in his arms and a kiss on his forehead in gratitude. Misaki was starting to drift off when Usagi suddenly shook him awake, "No, no. You can't fall asleep just yet, Misaki. We were outside in the cold and snow all day; we have to take a nice hot bath first so we won't catch a cold."

"No, you'll just do stuff to me." Misaki accused.

Usagi chuckled before saying, "No I won't. Sometimes it's okay to just want to take a bath with you."

"When have we ever done that?"

"When you were sick." Usagi pointed out as he stood up.

"That doesn't count." He growled.

"All right, then how about this time right now?"

Misaki narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Usagi, but Usagi simply picked Misaki up and carried him into the bathroom. Normally Misaki would have protested, but he was too tired at the time and just allowed his lover to carry him without a fight.

Misaki didn't feel any more awake while showering off and he was so languid that his arms fumbled to wash his body so Usagi took over for the boy; Usagi didn't mind as he liked washing his young lover. When they entered the tub however, Misaki passed out almost instantly. _"Maybe I was a little too rough on him."_ Usagi thought as he held onto Misaki to prevent him from drowning.

Usagi stayed with Misaki in the tub for a while and even massaged the boy's body a little so he wouldn't be so sore in the morning. When he figured they had been in the tub long enough, he dried off Misaki and redressed him before he put his lover to bed. After that he dried himself off and redressed before he joined him in the bed. He slid closer so he could cuddle him and he stroked the boy's soft dark chocolate locks rhythmically as he watched him sleep so peacefully.

"Don't worry Misaki. I will make sure our wish is granted. We'll figure it out together like we always do. I won't give you up to anyone, not even to Takahiro. I'm not letting you go anywhere." Usagi promised out loud even though he knew Misaki couldn't hear him. He embraced his lover tightly and rested his head on the boy's chest so that the lulling sound of Misaki's heart beat would be the last thing he heard before he fell asleep.


	21. Chapter 21

When the tentacles were cleaned up, Usagi drove Miyagi and Shinobu, as well as Hiroki and Nowaki back to their apartments before he and Misaki drove back home. Aikawa had taken up Tanaka's offer to drive her as her apartment was farther away from the others and in the opposite direction. Misaki and Usagi only brought their clothes and Suzuki-san as well as some food; the eels and goldfish they left behind so they could make sure the apartment was safe to bring them back.

Misaki was surprised to see that the complex was still standing and was virtually undamaged. After they entered the apartment and they put their stuff and the food away; Misaki set Suzuki-san down on the couch and sat down next to the bear. Since it was New Year's Eve, he was thinking about what to make for dinner; it was already eight at night and he was hungry as he hadn't had anything to eat since lunch, but he wanted to make something Usagi would also like.

Usagi interrupted his thoughts, "Misaki, since it's New Year's, would you like some tea, or maybe coffee?"

"Coffee would be nice."

"All right."

"Um… Usagi-san?"

"What?"

"What do you feel like eating?"

"Misa—"

"Not me!" he hissed.

"Hmm." Usagi seemed disappointed at Misaki's refusal, "Whatever you make is fine with me." The older man shrugged.

"I'm not sure what to make." Misaki admitted.

"Well then, how about we forget about dinner entirely and go upstairs and—"

"Misaki! Usagi! Happy New Year's Eve!" Takahiro's voice rang over the intercom and swiftly extinguished the lustful flame inside of Usagi who clicked his tongue in frustration at the interruption, but let Takahiro and his family inside.

"Oh, Takahiro! I had no idea you'd be coming back to Japan today. If I had known that I would have picked you up from the airport." Usagi greeted his friend warmly and smiled broadly so he wouldn't look as annoyed as he felt.

"Nah, that's fine. I wanted to let you two readjust to the apartment first. Misaki, how are you feeling?" Takahiro asked as he rushed over to his little brother and hugged him tightly.

"I feel fine, Brother." Misaki groaned, "I haven't been sick for a while you know."

"I know. I was just a little worried that's all, but I'm glad you're okay. Usagi, thank you so much; I knew I could trust you to look after Misaki."

"Yes, he always takes such good care of Misaki-kun." Manami agreed as she entered with Mahiro in tow.

Upon seeing his uncle, the boy grew excited and rushed away from his mother to jump at Misaki, "Mitaki! Mitaki!"

Misaki laughed at his adorable nephew and said, "I missed you too, Mahiro."

"Takahiro, would you like some coffee? I was just making some for Misaki."

"Coffee would be nice; thank you, Usagi. Here, I'll help you out."

Manami sat down on the couch and Misaki sat down on the opposite couch with Mahiro who still refused to let his uncle go. "Mahiro sure has grown, hasn't he?" Misaki laughed.

"Yes, they grow up so fast, and he's such a smart and well behaved boy."

"Ah, so he's like Brother then? I'm glad he doesn't give him trouble like I did."

"You never gave Takahiro trouble, Misaki-kun."

"Well, I did have a few moments of rebelliousness, but besides that I think I made him suffer a lot when I started cooking. I was just a little too ambitious or experimental with the things I made."

"He never mentioned any suffering at your hands, Misaki-kun. He only talked about how touched he was that you always tried so hard for him, and how cute your face looked when he'd say that what you made was delicious." She assured him, "Besides, I'm sure it won't be long before Mahiro starts doing that for us too, so it's good to have previous experience with something like that."

"Yeah, that's true."

"Maybe Mahiro will even make something for you and then you too will know what it's like."

"Ah, well I already kind of do with Usagi-san. He may be smart but he can't cook at all."

Manami giggled at her brother-in-law, but before they could continue their conversation, Takahiro and Usagi came back to the living room with the coffee. Takahiro sat down next to his wife while Usagi sat next to Misaki opposite of Mahiro. "Unagi! Unagi!" Mahiro cheered as he pointed to the older man.

"There won't be any eels here for a little while, Mahiro." Usagi told the boy.

"Oh, you took the eels and the gold fish with you too?" Takahiro asked.

"Of course; they would have starved to death or froze if they stayed here." Usagi pointed out.

"True, you're a very responsible person, Usagi."

"Yes, just ask Misaki. I took full responsibility didn't I?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Misaki laughed nervously before shooting Usagi a death glare.

Manami remained silent as Takahiro laughed along with Misaki. Her mind was occupied by Usagi's suggestive words. Misaki quickly changed the subject, "Brother, now that you're here could you help me think of an idea for tonight's dinner? I wasn't sure what to make since we don't have much food just yet."

"I figured as much; don't worry Misaki, we made some food before we left our apartment. In fact, let's go down and bring it in."

Takahiro and Misaki left the apartment, leaving Manami and Usagi almost all alone except for Mahiro who was chewing on one of his toys. "I remember something you said, that sometimes you realize how precious something is before you lose it."

"Yes."

"Is Misaki-kun precious to you?"

"Very."

"I hope you don't think this is nosy of me, I mean it is none of my business after all, but are you and Misaki-kun… a couple?"

"By 'a couple' do you mean 'lovers'?"

"…Yes."

"Would it be a problem if we were?"

"…No. No, not at all."

"Really?"

"Well, I see how happy the two of you are, even Takahiro can see that."

"But would he feel all right with that?"

"All he's ever cared about is Misaki-kun's wellbeing and what will make Misaki-kun happy; just like any other big brother. As the godfather of our first born child we already see you as family, and if you're what makes Misaki-kun happy then I'm sure we'll both trust you. It may take a while for Takahiro to recover from the shock, but he will understand. Your friendship won't end just because you're Misaki-kun's lover; you'll see."

Usagi felt encouraged by her words, _"Then I'll tell Takahiro."_ He decided, _"Tonight I'll tell him."_

After dinner, Mahiro fell asleep and Takahiro and Manami put their son to bed in Misaki's room for the moment. While they were gone, Usagi took the moment to tell Misaki, "Misaki."

"What?"

"I'm going to tell Takahiro about us tonight."

"Are you insane?" he hissed.

"No. It'll be fine; you'll see." Usagi assured him.

Misaki was about to speak when Takahiro and Manami returned downstairs. "Just three more hours to go." Takahiro reminded them excitedly before adding, "Now that Mahiro is asleep, I can finally bring it out. I brought beer and snacks. I'll go get them from the kitchen"

"I'll help you." Usagi offered.

Misaki knew that Usagi planned to use the time he was alone with Takahiro to tell him the truth about them, and he tried to think of a way to stop him. He quickly realized something he could do to stop him and he pretended to trip and he bumped his knee against the coffee table hard. "Misaki?" Takahiro and Usagi expressed their alarm in unison.

"I'm all right, but I think my knee might be cut. Usagi-san, will you help me check it out?" Misaki swiftly grabbed the older man and lead him towards the bathroom.

"Would you like me to carry you?"

"Not right now." He growled.

"So then I can later?" Usagi realized.

"Just get in here and stop using my words against me." Misaki muttered as he pulled his lover inside the bathroom and closed the door.

Usagi picked Misaki up and set him on the counter while he grabbed the first aid kit. He set it down next to Misaki and slowly pulled up the boy's jean leg up and saw the small cut on his kneecap. It was only a little cut, but it was bleeding and a trail of bright red blood was starting to drip down. Usagi gently cleaned off the blood and as he did, he broke the silence, "I've never known you to be so clumsy before, Misaki. You should be more careful."

"Uh… w-well, I actually did this on purpose." He admitted nervously.

"What? Misaki, why would you do that?"

"Because you were going to tell Brother!"

"Don't you want me to?"

"That's not the point! You said it was something we'd do together; you promised!"

"Then let's tell him now." Usagi suggested as he finished wiping the blood off of Misaki's leg and sprayed his cut with some disinfectant.

"No, I can't tell him just yet." Misaki shook his head, "I want to do it properly after I graduate. Please Usagi-san; will you just wait until then?"

"I'll wait, Misaki. I will always wait for you." Usagi promised as he finished applying a bandage on the boy's cut.

Misaki was about to slide off of the counter when Usagi planted a soft kiss on his bandaged cut, "Does it feel better?"

Misaki blushed darkly, but secretly admitted to himself that oddly enough, it did. "Th-thank you, Usagi-san."

Usagi then suddenly flicked the boy on the forehead, "Ow! You bastard, why'd you do that?" Misaki demanded as he rubbed his forehead.

"Don't ever try to hurt yourself again. I mean it." Usagi warned before he kissed his young lover on his forehead where the little red mark he made was.

"I got it, I got it. I won't do it again." Misaki grumbled.

Usagi picked Misaki up and set him down on the ground and the two left the bathroom. "How's your leg?" Takahiro asked once the two entered the living room.

"It's fine; it's just a little cut." Misaki assured him.

"That's good then, but it's odd that you asked Usagi to help you. If you needed help you could have asked me, Misaki." Takahiro pointed out.

"Misaki knew you would have just made a fuss and he didn't want you to worry about something so minor. It was just a little cut after all. The only reason why he asked me is because he wasn't sure how badly it was bleeding, and if it had been too bloody he would have needed help cleaning his leg off."

"Ah, I see. Well thank you, Usagi. I seem to be thanking you a lot for looking after Misaki."

"Misaki actually takes very good care of me as well. If he weren't here, I'm sure I'd keel over in minutes."

"Usagi, you're so modest. You've always managed to keep a good home despite living alone. I think you're giving Misaki too much credit."

"Not at all, Takahiro. I'm not one to flatter for the sake of flattery."

"Well I'm glad that you two are getting along so well. By the way Misaki, we should start talking about where you'll be moving to after you graduate; spring will be here in the blink of an eye, you know."

"You don't have to worry about that, Takahiro. Misaki has already decided where he'll live after he graduates." Usagi reassured.

"Oh, really?" Takahiro was intrigued to hear that Misaki had already made a decision.

"Yes, it's a lovely apartment complex in a good neighborhood, and it's in an excellent central location in the city; it's also extremely affordable for a college graduate."

"Wow! That sounds great! Where is it?"

"Misaki wants to show it you two after he graduates so he can hear your opinions on it."

"Really, Misaki?" Takahiro seemed touched that his little brother wanted his and his wife's opinion.

"W-well I've already decided to live there no matter what, but if I had the approval of you and Sister it would mean a lot to me." Misaki blushed slightly and noticed a lustful spark flicker in Usagi's eyes at his subtle 'love confession'.

"Of course Misaki, we'll take a look at it and tell you what we think." Takahiro beamed, "I'm so proud of you!"

Misaki felt a twinge of pain at his brother's obliviousness. _"He'll see, and then he'll know. I wonder if he'll still be proud of me then."_ Misaki suddenly realized someone was ruffling his hair and he looked up to see Usagi, _"Ah, but, no matter what happens I will never regret falling in love with this man."_ He thought happily as he came out of his depressed feelings.

"You should be proud, Takahiro. Your brother has become a fine man because of you, and you should be proud of yourself for raising him so well."

"Thank you Usagi, you're a good friend."

"All right, now let's drink!" Misaki interrupted the serious atmosphere and grabbed a can of beer before sitting down and opening it.

The four then passed the time with light hearted conversations over beer and snacks. Misaki however, soon became drunk and immediately passed out on the couch just under an hour before midnight. "Aww, he still passes out whenever he becomes drunk, huh?" Takahiro chuckled.

"Yes, and it's not just beer; wine makes him pass out too."

"Oh, you gave him wine?" Manami asked, "I thought Misaki-kun didn't like wine."

"Yes, it was to celebrate his job offer." Usagi explained; he decided not to mention the second time he made Misaki pass out from drinking wine.

"Well if it was your wine I'm sure Misaki loved it."

"He did, he almost drank the entire bottle."

The three adults continued to visit until midnight and after a quick New Year's celebration, Manami retrieved Mahiro from Misaki's room while Usagi called a cab for them. "Usagi, thank you for letting us spend the New Year here with you and Misaki. Please make sure that you two come visit us sometime soon."

"We will, Takahiro." Usagi assured his friend as he directed his guests outside.

When he returned, he picked Misaki up from the couch and carried him upstairs to his bedroom. He took Misaki's shirt off before he put the boy into bed and climbed in next to him. He curled his body around his young lover and planted a soft kiss on Misaki's lips, "Happy New Year, Misaki." He whispered.

Misaki turned over in his sleep so that he was facing Usagi and he noticed a smile on the boy's face which made his heart flutter. He hugged his lover tightly and nuzzled his hair to drink in the boy's sweet scent. _"This will be our every night from now on. Forever."_ Usagi thought before he slowly drifted off to sleep.


End file.
